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Category: United States of America

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Friday essay: ‘nothing quite like it in the history of espionage’ – the Russian spies who pretended to be American

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney

    In the thrilling finale of the TV series The Americans, set during the Reagan administration, deep-cover KGB operatives Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are faced with a difficult decision. Posing as an ordinary American married couple, for decades they have raised children, filed tax returns and slipped effortlessly into the rhythms and routines of everyday suburban existence in Washington, D.C.

    All the while, they’ve been spying – gathering intelligence and surreptitiously feeding it to their communist masters in Soviet Moscow. Now, with the FBI closing in and their cover on the brink of collapse, they must decide whether to stay and face arrest or flee the country they’ve come to call home. There’s also their teenage children to consider.

    The story seemed too incredible to be true – but in fact it was based in part on Donald Heathfield and Ann Foley, subsequently outed as Andrei Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova, a Russian couple who had spent more than 20 years masquerading as Canadians. At the time of their unmasking, they were living quietly in the United States with Tim and Alex, their two sons.

    Review: The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West – Shaun Walker (Profile)

    A new book, The Illegals, tells of a network of Russian agents operating across the US, during the late 20th and early 21st centuries – including Bezrukov and Vavilova. It opens with their dramatic 2010 arrest, part of ten Russian spies (mostly illegals like them) detained by the FBI.

    Author Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, draws on declassified archival material and first-hand interviews. The result is an engrossing, eye-opening account of the secret world of the Soviet “illegals programme”: embedded spies who lived surreptitiously in the West without the safety blanket of diplomatic protection.

    As Walker explains, “legals” were Russian operatives working under official cover – as diplomats or embassy staff, privy to diplomatic immunity. By contrast, “illegals” operated off the grid. They crept silently into Western countries under false identities, often stolen from the dead. This made them harder to detect, but left them far more vulnerable if exposed.

    One of the most high-profile figures in the 2010 spy bust was Anna Chapman. Unlike many other illegals, Chapman didn’t even bother to disguise her Russian identity. Instead, as Walker recounts, she entered America using a British passport – acquired through a brief marriage to a UK citizen – and worked as a New York real estate broker.

    Her photogenic looks and media-friendly persona made her the public face of the scandal. After being deported, Chapman reinvented herself as a television host, runway model and pro-Kremlin influencer.

    The real Americans

    Walker outlines how Bezrukov and Vavilova first met in the early 1980s, as history students in Siberia. There, KGB “spotters” identified them for potential recruitment. Later, he adds,

    they progressed to an arduous training programme lasting several years, moulding their language, mannerisms and identities into those of an ordinary couple. They left the Soviet Union separately in 1987, staged a meeting in Canada, and began a relationship as if they had just met.

    Having married under their assumed names, Andrei and Elena adopted the habits and customs of an ordinary middle-class life. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the couple were cut off from Moscow, but by the end of the decade they were reactivated by the SVR, Russia’s new foreign intelligence agency. Around this time, Andrei won a place at Harvard’s Kennedy School, allowing the family to move to Massachusetts and integrate further into American society.

    As Andrei networked in academic and policy circles, Elena maintained the illusion of domestic normality, fashioning herself as a doting “soccer mom”, raising the kids and keeping house. Meanwhile, she was secretly decoding encrypted radio messages in the back room.

    This went on for years. Then, one day, an unexpected knock on the door as they celebrated their son Tim’s 20th birthday brought the charade crashing down. FBI agents burst in, handcuffed the couple in front of their sons and marched them out into the street.

    Soon after their arrest, Andrei and Elena were deported to Russia in a high-profile spy swap. They were awarded state honours by Vladimir Putin and briefly became minor celebrities in Moscow. Their sons, both born in Canada, were left reeling.

    In 2016, Walker tracked the sons down for a piece he was writing for The Guardian: they were in the process of suing the Canadian government to have their citizenship reinstated, having been stripped of it when everything kicked off. In 2019, a court ruled Tim and Alex (who was 16 when the FBI arrested his parents) could keep their citizenship. Both insisted they had known nothing about their parents’ espionage work.

    Alex Valivov, son of Russian ‘illegal’ spies disguised as Americans, talked to the media after he won a court bid to keep his Canadian citizenship.

    Putin ‘beside himself’

    As Walker recounts, the raid had been coordinated by then-FBI director Robert Mueller. It had been timed to avoid derailing a carefully planned diplomatic summit.

    In 2009, Barack Obama launched a high-profile “reset” of relations with Russia. Obama wanted to woo Dmitry Medvedev – a moderate political figurehead standing in for Putin, who remained the real power behind the scenes in Russia.

    A planned summit in Washington intended to cement the spirit of renewed cooperation. But as the scale of Russia’s covert operation became apparent, the White House was faced with a dilemma: how to respond without jeopardising the reset.

    According to Walker, Obama was irked by the whole situation. He quipped that it felt like something out of a John Le Carré novel. Eventually, a compromise was reached: the arrests would happen, but only after Medvedev’s visit, so as not to cause undue embarrassment.

    Colonel Aleksandr Poteyev, deputy head of Directorate “S” of the SVR, was the man overseeing the illegals scheme. After the arrests were made, he quietly walked out of the agency headquarters in Yasenevo for the last time. He was the mole who had tipped off the Americans. From there, he made his way to Ukraine, where the CIA could safely extricate him to the US. On hearing the news, Putin was reportedly beside himself with rage, Walker writes.

    Intrigued by this “twisted family story”, Walker started to look into the illegals venture in greater depth. He quickly realised “there was nothing quite like it in the history of espionage”. At times, various intelligence agencies had deployed operatives as foreign nationals, “but never with the scope or scale of the KGB programme”.

    A century of dramatic, bloody history

    The illegals were, in Walker’s reckoning, something uniquely Russian, rooted in the country’s complex historical experience. The more he read, the more he came to view the programme as a lens through which he could “tell a much bigger story, of the whole Soviet experiment and its ultimate failure, a century of dramatic and bloody history”.

    To understand how the illegals project came about, Walker winds the clock all the way back to 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power – and espionage became a cornerstone of the nascent Soviet state. He reminds us while Lenin and his comrades had won formal control of the nation, “they still faced the colossal task of implementing and retaining it across the vast Russian landmass”.

    Gripped by his belief in the predictive principles of historical materialism,

    Lenin was sure that state institutions would eventually wither away, the evolving worker’s paradise rendering them meaningless. However, to achieve this happy end point, he believed an interim period of ruthless state violence was required.

    The Cheka: precursor to the KGB

    This helps to explain why he established the Cheka, a secret police force tasked with crushing counterrevolutionary activity and enforcing Bolshevik rule. At its head was Feliks Dzerzhinsky, a fanatical Polish ideologue who had spent years in Siberian exile. Far from a temporary measure, the Cheka “quickly grew to a huge fighting force that could be unleashed on political and class enemies”, Walker writes.

    Feliks Dzierzynski was the head of the Cheka, the Russian secret police force that preceded the KGB.
    Wikimedia Commons

    The Cheka was an important player in the Russian Civil War, which pitted Lenin’s Reds against the Whites – a loose alliance of pro-tsarist regiments and foreign mercenaries, often united by little more than their implacable hatred of Bolshevism. The situation on the ground was chaotic and unpredictable; both sides engaged in ruthless violence.

    Here, in this blood-drenched crucible, the Bolsheviks honed their clandestine methods – konspiratsiya (subterfuge) – perfecting the use of disguises, false identities and underground communication. In areas where the Whites gained a territorial foothold, agents were ordered to stay behind and coordinate resistance, laying the groundwork for what would become the illegals programme.

    When the Bolsheviks emerged victorious in 1921, the Cheka was not disbanded – but repurposed. The practice of planting operatives deep inside enemy lines survived the war and expanded in scope. Lenin’s idea of combining legal diplomatic work with illegal undercover infiltration became a defining feature of how the Soviet Union would run its intelligence services for the next 70 years.

    Stalin’s secret police

    Under Lenin’s successor, Joseph Stalin, the secret police was transformed into an all-encompassing instrument of surveillance, repression and domination.

    Purges consumed the party. Ideological fervour curdled into show trials and murderous terror. And paranoia became an organising principle of Soviet political life. The demand for vigilance intensified – not just at home, where informants and denunciations became routine, but also abroad. Real and purported enemies were seen lurking in the democratic institutions of the West.

    Ironies abound here. The very methods that helped to sustain the early Soviet state – secrecy, trickery, duplicity – soon became grounds for suspicion on Stalin’s watch. The generation of illegals trained and embedded during the 1920s and early 1930s were among those earmarked for liquidation, Walker writes. Stalin, ever wary of plots against him, came to view his own spies as potential traitors.

    He ignored – or wilfully dismissed – much of the intelligence they had risked their lives to gather, often with disastrous consequences. When advance warnings of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s secret plan to betray Stalin and launch a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, landed on his desk in 1941, for instance, they were waved away as provocation or outright fabrication. In some cases, he had his spies tortured or shot. Loyalty was no protector against paranoia.

    Dmitry Bystrolyotov was a legend in Soviet intelligence circles.
    Alchetron

    Among the casualties was Dmitry Bystrolyotov, who Walker describes as “perhaps the most talented illegal in the history of the programme”. A truly chameleonic figure, Bystrolyotov was a dashing and multilingual agent whose exploits in Western Europe made him a legend in Soviet intelligence circles. “His speciality was the recruitment of agents who had access to diplomatic codes and ciphers,” the Russian scholar Emil Draitser attests, “and his modus operandi involved women”.

    Through a series of painstakingly crafted affairs, Bystrolyotov gained access to confidential dispatches, internal memos and state secrets. His work offered Stalin a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Europe’s ruling elite. But when The Great Terror rolled around in 1937, none of it mattered. He was arrested, sentenced and dispatched to the Gulag, callously tossed aside by the system he had served with such distinction.

    Walker emphasises:

    the history of the illegals offers a neat reflection of the story of Russia itself. The early programme, with its soaring ambition, its obsession with subterfuge, and its disregard for the well-being of individuals, holds up a mirror to the fiery utopianism of the early Soviet Union.

    Did the Cold War really end?

    These were people expected to vanish into enemy territory, sacrifice their identifies and live double lives, all in service of a revolutionary vision. But by the time the Soviet Union spluttered to an ignominious halt in 1991, that dream had long since died.


    As Walker shows, most of the operatives who followed in the footsteps of Bystrolyotov were not darkly romantic infiltrators scaling embassy walls or charming secrets out of countesses. They were “sleepers” – often efficient, occasionally incompetent – blending quietly into Western cities and suburbs, awaiting a call to action that, in many cases, never came. The glitz had given way to the grind.

    The Americans ends with Phillip and Elizabeth, the couple based on Bezrukov and Vavilova, gazing out across the Moscow skyline. Two weary spies coming in from the cold, they have returned to a rapidly unravelling motherland that may not understand – let alone appreciate – the sacrifices they have made in the service of its ideology.

    As Walker discovered, Berzukov, when he isn’t being paid handsomely by an oil company, now lectures in international relations at one of Russia’s most prestigious universities. Vavilova, fittingly enough, now writes spy fiction.

    Yet in real life, the story doesn’t end quite there. Under Putin, a former KGB officer who cut his teeth in the culture of espionage, Russia’s intelligence services have returned to the illegals programme with a renewed sense of purpose (though stripped of the ideological zeal that once propelled it).

    Walker is careful not to indulge in idle speculation, but he points to compelling evidence suggesting the illegals programme has evolved rather than vanished. High-profile attacks on UK soil – including the poisoning of form spy Sergei Skripal – suggest Russian intelligence agencies remain willing to operate far beyond their national borders.

    In the same breath, Walker describes what might be termed the digital turn of the illegals programme. In the place of suburban sleepers decoding radio signals, Russia has backed teams of online operatives – “troll illegals” – tasked with wrecking havoc across Western social media platforms.

    These paid agents don’t gather intelligence so much as sow discord. They stoke culture wars, amplify political divisions and undermine trust in democratic institutions. Walker offers Russia’s meddling in the rancorous 2016 American election as an illustrative case in point.

    In Putin’s merciless autocracy, secrecy has once again became a virtue – and the spy, far from being a dusty relic of the 20th century, is once again a symbol of national strength.

    In that sense, The Illegals is not just a history of espionage. It is a timely reminder that, at least for some, the Cold War never really ended. It just burrowed deeper underground.

    Alexander Howard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Friday essay: ‘nothing quite like it in the history of espionage’ – the Russian spies who pretended to be American – https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-nothing-quite-like-it-in-the-history-of-espionage-the-russian-spies-who-pretended-to-be-american-260063

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: July 17th, 2025 Heinrich Leads Legislation to Protect Dreamers’ Data, Prevent DHS from Referring Dreamers to ICE & CBP

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich

    WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) led the introduction of the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act, legislation to provide a statutory guarantee to current and prospective Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program applicants, also known as Dreamers, that the private information they provide in their applications will not be weaponized against them as the Trump Administration increases information sharing to advance their draconian mass deportation agenda.

    Last month, the Trump Administration gave Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personal data, including immigration status, on millions of Medicaid enrollees and announced it would require some undocumented immigrants to register with DHS. The Administration also finalized an agreement giving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, the Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently gained access to key immigration databases, including the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) Courts and Appeals System (ECAS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Data Business Intelligence Services, which contains information on noncitizens who have applied for DACA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Unaccompanied Alien Children portal.

    The Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act will prohibit the DHS Secretary from disclosing information included in an individual’s application for the DACA program to law enforcement agencies, including ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for any purpose other than the implementation of the DACA program, with limited exceptions.

    “Dreamers in New Mexico and across the country are frontline health care workers, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and scientists. These inspiring young people are Americans in every sense of the word except on paper, and they want nothing more than to be productive members of their communities. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration doesn’t care about any of that and is indiscriminately sharing the private information of Dreamers. We need to ensure that Dreamers’ private information is not weaponized against them and is protected — full stop,” said Heinrich. “That’s why, for years, I’ve championed the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act to safeguard Dreamers’ DACA application information and provide DACA applicants with a sense of security as they continue on their paths to citizenship. I call on Congress to quickly take up and pass my legislation to make sure Dreamers are able to stay in school, keep working and contribute to our economy, and remain in their homes and neighborhoods.”

    Since 2012, more than 825,000 people have received deferred action pursuant to DACA, contributing an estimated $140 billion to the U.S. economy in spending power and paying $40 billion in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes.

    In 2021, a federal district court judge paused the DACA program and prevented USCIS from approving any new DACA applications. Since then, USCIS has continued to accept and hold initial applications and more than 100,000 initial DACA applications are currently pending. Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision limiting that 2021 injunction to just Texas, allowing USCIS to begin processing those pending applications from the other 49 states. However, USCIS has not done so, nor have they provided the public with a timeline for when those applications will begin to be processed. And many individuals who could be eligible for DACA fear that applying for the protections afforded by DACA will allow the Trump Administration to weaponize the information they provide against them or their family members.

    The Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act sends a clear message of support to the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and prospective applicants. Increased protections for their personal information are essential to make sure that they are not unfairly targeted for immigration enforcement and ensure that they can utilize the DACA program and continue to contribute to our communities in New Mexico and across the country without the fear of retribution.

    Specifically, the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act will:

    • Direct the DHS Secretary to protect the information included in an individual’s application to the DACA program from disclosure to ICE, CBP, and any other law enforcement agency for any purpose other than the implementation of the DACA program;
    • Prohibit the DHS Secretary from referring anyone with deferred enforcement protections pursuant to the DACA program to ICE, CBP, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and any other law enforcement agency; and
    • Provide limited exceptions for when an individual’s application information may be shared with national security and law enforcement agencies, namely:
      • To identify or prevent fraudulent claims;
      • For particularized national security concerns; and
      • For the investigation or prosecution of a felony, provided that the felony in question is not related to the applicant’s immigration status.

    The legislation is led by U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D- Hawaii), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

    A one-page summary of the bill is here.

    The text of the bill is here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Peng Liyuan attends Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-US youth friendship event

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attends the Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-U.S. youth friendship event and delivers a speech at the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, on July 17, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Thursday attended the Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-U.S. youth friendship event and delivered a speech at the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

    Peng also watched a video about the Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-U.S. Youth Choir Festival. Elyn MacInnis, founder of Friends of Kuliang, and Luca Berrone, Xi’s friend from Iowa, shared their stories of Kuliang, as well as their experiences of China-U.S. people-to-people exchange and local cooperation. They expressed their deep affection for China and their gratitude to President Xi for his concern for the youth of both countries. They also said that they will continue contributing to promoting the U.S.-China friendship.

    U.S. youth representatives shared their experiences of visiting China, and said they are willing to become new-generation friendship ambassadors, carrying forward great stories of friendship between the two countries.

    In her speech, Peng said that the century-old story of Kuliang and President Xi’s deep friendship with his old friends in Iowa spanning over 40 years epitomize the China-U.S. friendship.

    Though the two countries have different histories, cultures and languages, the Chinese and American peoples love their families and are kind, friendly, hardworking and practical, meaning they are perfectly capable of becoming good friends and partners, she said.

    Over the year since President Xi proposed China’s initiative to welcome 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study programs over a five-year period, many young people from the United States have been invited to visit China. While gaining first-hand experience of the real China, they have made new friends and written new chapters in the China-U.S. friendship, Peng said.

    Noting that youth is the future of the country, as well as the future of friendship, Peng called on young people to be the inheritors of the China-U.S. friendship, and promoters of peace and amity. She also called on them to build a bridge of friendship between the two countries, and to contribute their youthful strength to a better future for both nations.

    Before the event, Peng met with MacInnis and Berrone, expressing appreciation for their longtime dedication to the cause of China-U.S. friendship. She encouraged them to continue making active efforts to enhance exchange and mutual understanding between the two peoples.

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    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Photo & Video Chronology — July 17, 2025 — UAS mission at Kīlauea summit

    Source: US Geological Survey

    This near-vertical view into the north vent within Halema‘uma‘u crater was captured during a USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory UAS (uncrewed aircraft systems) flight on July 17, 2025. The aircraft was about 150 m (500 ft) above the vent, with north oriented to the upper left in this view. No incandescence or lava was visible within the vent. These UAS flights were conducted with the permission of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, owing to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s mission to monitor active volcanoes in Hawaii, assess their hazards, issue warnings, and advance scientific understanding to reduce the impacts of eruptions. Unauthorized launching, landing, or operating of a UAS from or on lands and waters administered by the National Park Service is prohibited under 36 CFR Closures & Public Use. USGS photo by M. Zoeller.

    Crater Rim Drive within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park was damaged during the earthquakes and collapse events in 2018. Tephra has been deposited parts of the damaged road during recent lava fountaining episodes in Halemaʻumaʻu, underscoring the hazardous nature of this area that has remained closed to the public since 2008. USGS photo by K. Mulliken. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: 07.17.2025 Sens. Cruz and Padilla Lead Coalition to Introduce Bill Promoting Space Research and Exploration

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Texas Ted Cruz
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and colleagues introduced the Space Exploration Research Act to promote aeronautical and space research, educate a 21st century space workforce, and enhance U.S. commercial competitiveness in the space and aerospace industries.
    The legislation authorizes the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to lease and lease-back certain property to alleviate roadblocks for the development and use of property adjacent to NASA facilities. The bill also helps Johnson Space Center (JSC) remain as a lead center for training and exploration activities, which will make Texas a hub for job growth in the space and aerospace industry.
    Sen. Cruz said, “This is a pivotal moment and exciting time for space exploration. A strong, strategic partnership between NASA and our thriving commercial space sector has made the U.S. a leader in space. This legislation is a big win for Texas jobs, American innovation, and national security. As China races to dominate the final frontier, the U.S. must stay ahead, which means continuing to promote space research and exploration here at home.”
    Sen. Padilla said, “California’s three NASA centers promote vital scientific research and support groundbreaking space innovations critical to our nation’s competitiveness. Our commonsense, bipartisan legislation would allow NASA centers in California and across the country to take advantage of unused facilities to generate revenue and advance scientific research, education, and training.”
    Joining Sens. Cruz and Padilla were Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
    Sen. Britt said, “Our space program is vitally important to both U.S. national and economic security. I am proud that Alabama and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center are right at the heart of fulfilling President Trump’s mission for space exploration. This commonsense measure will allow us to put unused properties to good use — advancing workforce training, allowing the transfer of aeronautical and space technologies to companies and universities, and ensuring our state remains a leader in space research. I’m proud to stand with Chairman Cruz in introducing this legislation.”
    Sen. Luján said,“New Mexico plays a big role in leading the country in space exploration and innovation. By strengthening partnerships between NASA and our universities, we can give more students in New Mexico the chance to get hands-on experience with space research. That’s why I’m proud to introduce a bill that will make it easier for NASA to team up with public and nonprofit groups, helping grow our space economy and create new opportunities.”
    Sen. Wicker said,“Innovation is critical to expanding America’s space exploration capabilities. NASA centers should have the resources and expertise to grow in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This legislation would enable Mississippi’s Stennis Space Center to maximize underutilized areas at its facilities.”
    BACKGROUND
    In June of 2023, as a part of a strategy to build a nearby hub of human spaceflight expertise, JSC announced a solicitation of proposals from civil and commercial entities for use of 240 acres of land on the western end of the property. The proposals were for the lease of all or a portion of the available undeveloped property.
    Texas A&M submitted a proposal to JSC, and the Texas State Legislature passed House Bill 1, which appropriated funding to the Texas Space Commission and Texas A&M University for the construction of facilities adjacent to JSC for mission training, research, and the curation of astronautical materials. Representatives from JSC and Texas A&M broke ground on the Texas A&M Space Institute at Exploration Park in November 2024.
    JSC has expressed interest in utilizing the capabilities of the Space Institute to supplement its facilities. This proposed legislation codifies the ability of NASA facilities to lease the land to state governments, universities, and non-profits. After the land and facilities are developed by the above parties, this legislation also allows NASA to lease back the facilities for its use.
    The Space Exploration Research Act aims to benefit a multitude of educational institutions, commercial space, and surrounding employers. The legislation enables access to cutting-edge facilities, provides students with hands-on opportunities to solve real-world space problems, and builds up a workforce for the rapidly growing space economy.
    Click here for the full bill text.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: $6.5 Million for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Advanced by Senator Collins in Funding Bill

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Maine Susan Collins

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that she advanced $6.5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending to support the necessary design and reconfiguration work to construct a new security facility at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.? The legislation, which was officially approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee today, now awaits consideration by the full Senate and House.

    “Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is the gold standard for repairing, retrofitting, and refueling our nation’s nuclear submarines. Its talented workforce helps maintain our Navy’s fleet and our national security, while the Shipyard’s fire department and first responders work long hours to ensure their safety,” said Senator Collins.? “This new, consolidated facility would help to improve response times, mitigate hazards, and provide the PNSY fire department with an adequate space to work, train, and live. As the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, I will continue to advocate for this funding as the appropriations process moves forward.”??????

    “The members of the Shipyard Professional Fire Fighters, IAFF Local F-123 are incredibly grateful and fully support Senator Collins and her hard work on our behalf to advance funding for a new firehouse,” said Kyle Mosher, President Shipyard Professional Fire Fighters, IAFF Local F-123. “This project is long overdue as our current quarters, though historic, no longer meet the day-to-day needs of a modern fire department. Federal Firefighters work a grueling 72-hour work week and, specifically here at the Shipyard, we work in 48 continuous hour shifts, so the firehouse, like all firefighters, is our home away from home.”

    Constructed in the 1800s, the current facility that houses the PNSY fire department is poorly configured and is at maximum capacity. The Shipyard fire department responds to an average of 2,000 calls a year and assists the surrounding communities. This funding would support the planning and design of a renovated and expanded facility to consolidate the Shipyard’s security, police, NCIS, and fire departments.

    This funding advanced through the Committee’s markup of the FY 2026 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill—an important step that now allows the bill to be considered by the full Senate.

    In 2021, Congress reinstituted Congressionally Directed Spending.? Following this decision, Senator Collins has secured more than $1 billion for hundreds of Maine projects for FY 2022, FY 2023, and FY 2024.? As the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins is committed to championing targeted investments that will benefit Maine communities.??

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: $2.5 Million for Maine Air National Guard Advanced by Senator Collins in Funding Bill

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Maine Susan Collins

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that she advanced $2.5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending to support the planning and design of a new aircraft maintenance and ground equipment facility for the Maine Air National Guard. This funding was included in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, which was officially approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee today and now awaits consideration by the full Senate and House.

    “From assisting our communities when disaster strikes to supporting our national defense, the brave men and women of the Maine National Guard are always ready to serve,” said Senator Collins. “This proposed funding would enhance the Maine Guard’s readiness while ensuring modern and safe working environments and reducing maintenance costs. As the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, I will continue to advocate for this funding as the appropriations process moves forward.”

    “Maine National Guard is grateful for Senator Collins continued support and efforts to pursue proposed funding for a new maintenance and equipment facility at the Bangor Air National Guard Base,” said Brigadier General Diane Dunn, the Adjutant General of the Maine National Guard. “The project will benefit the Maine National Guard, the state, and the nation. A modernized facility will help ensure that our Maineiacs are equipped and ready to conduct refueling operations for years to come. Our tankers are critical to our country’s defense strategy. We are excited that is one step closer to approval.”

    Currently, flightline maintenance and ground equipment maintenance operate out of two separate and undersized facilities. This project would combine operations under one right-sized facility for the 101st Air Refueling Wing in Bangor, helping to reduce response times.

    In May, Senator Collins secured $50 million for the Maine Air National Guard to construct a new hangar in Bangor. This funding was included in the Fiscal Year 2025 full-year continuing resolution.

    This funding advanced through the Committee’s markup of the FY 2026 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill—an important step that now allows the bill to be considered by the full Senate.

    In 2021, Congress reinstituted Congressionally Directed Spending. Following this decision, Senator Collins has secured more than $1 billion for hundreds of Maine projects for FY 2022, FY 2023, and FY 2024.? As the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins is committed to championing targeted investments that will benefit Maine communities.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Padilla Announces Hold on National Guard Bureau Nominee Until Trump Demilitarizes Los Angeles

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    WATCH: Padilla Announces Hold on National Guard Bureau Nominee Until Trump Demilitarizes Los Angeles

    WATCH: Padilla: “Stop militarizing our cities and using our service members as political pawns.”

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, announced on the Senate floor that he placed a hold on President Trump’s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles. Lieutenant General Carden currently serves as second-in-command of Northern Command — the combatant command that has enforced Trump’s orders to militarize Los Angeles. Padilla blasted President Trump for manufacturing a crisis and escalating tensions in the region by deploying 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 active-duty Marines without Governor Newsom’s consent.

    After intense and successful political pressure from Democrats, the Trump Administration finally announced earlier this week that they would release 2,000 National Guard troops from their deployment to Los Angeles; however, approximately 2,000 National Guardsmen and all 700 Marines still remain. In response to the ongoing militarization of Los Angeles, Padilla will oppose any expedited consideration of Carden’s nomination until the Administration:

    • Releases every Guardsman and Marine from their federalized deployment to Los Angeles and
    • Commits to not sending any Guardsmen from other states to enforce the President’s political demands on California.

    Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard went against the wishes of the Governor for the first time since 1965. The Cal Guard serves honorably in overseas deployments in support of our allies and partners, disaster response efforts, and counter-drug missions. Padilla urged Trump to return these troops to their core missions, including wildfire mitigation efforts during peak fire season. He cited that the head of the U.S. Northern Command requested in late June that Secretary Hegseth return 200 troops from the National Guard’s wildfire unit who were stuck in Los Angeles to enact Trump’s political agenda.

    Key Excerpts:

    • “I rise today to both publicly and clearly explain my hold on this nomination, and to demand that the Trump Administration release all remaining U.S. military forces from the unnecessary and political deployment to Los Angeles.”
    • “In order to change the news cycle, which he does so often — to shift the headlines away from his many, many failures — President Trump chose to ramp up ICE raids in California. And when Californians took to the streets to exercise their First Amendment rights by peacefully protesting, Trump responded by federalizing the California National Guard and then later, the U.S. Marines were ordered in to intimidate the people of Los Angeles.”
    • “None of these service members signed up to become a political prop. But Trump has put them in this impossible position that he knew would escalate tensions in the region and take them away from their critical missions elsewhere.”
    • “Every day that those troops were unnecessarily deployed to Los Angeles was another day that their primary mission went unmet. We’re talking about undermining firefighting and fire mitigation efforts as we are approaching peak wildfire season. This is dangerous and unnecessary.”
    • “I want to be very clear about something: my objection is about more than Lieutenant General Carden. None of what we are seeing in Los Angeles through this militarization is business as usual. Deploying the Guard against the wishes of the Governor, against the wishes of the Mayor, and against even the wishes of local law enforcement — the sheriff, the police chief — none of that is normal.”
    • “Stop militarizing our cities and using our service members as political pawns.”

    Video of Senator Padilla’s full remarks is available here.

    Senator Padilla has been outspoken in criticizing Trump’s mass deportations and unprecedented militarization and escalation of tensions by deploying National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines to respond to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles. Padilla recently led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Padilla spoke on the Senate floor following his forcible removal from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s press conference, where he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question. He has spoken at a spotlight hearing and on the Senate floor multiple other times to blast President Trump for manufacturing a crisis by launching indiscriminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across Los Angeles and using that crisis to dramatically expand executive power.

    Last week, Padilla and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the VISIBLE Act to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. Padilla also led 13 Democratic Senators in a letter criticizing ICE for engaging in counterproductive, theatrical enforcement activities — including raids on courthouses and restaurants — and requesting information from the agency on its mask and uniform policies. Additionally, Padilla is leading legislation to restrict the President’s authority under the 217-year-old Insurrection Act and limit the domestic deployment of military troops for law enforcement purposes.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Padilla, Durbin, Welch, Colleagues Condemn DOJ’s Baseless Voter Fraud Investigations

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    Padilla, Durbin, Welch, Colleagues Condemn DOJ’s Baseless Voter Fraud Investigations

    On John Lewis National Day of Action, Senators request access to Civil Rights Division Memo that changes mission statement to investigating voter fraud

    Senators: “Taken together, the Department is clearly pursuing an anti-voter, partisan agenda aligned with 2020 election deniers and conspiracy theorists”

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, on John Lewis National Day of Action, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) led 13 Senators in raising the alarm on the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division’s policy shift to focus on unsubstantiated voter fraud investigations. The Senators pushed Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon to share the recent staff memorandum reportedly changing the mission statement of the Civil Rights Division Voting Section away from defending voting rights. The Department of Justice has repeatedly refused Ranking Member Padilla’s oversight requests to access this memo.

    The letter comes as the DOJ’s Voting Section made a sweeping request asking Colorado to provide all 2024 federal election records and maintain any remaining 2020 election records, in addition to seeking voter rolls from at least nine other states. The Voting Section is also pursuing cases in Arizona, Wisconsin, and North Carolina based on baseless claims of election irregularities or fraud. They also criticized the Voting Section for abandoning efforts to protect voting rights, including dropping its lawsuit challenging Georgia’s Senate Bill 202, withdrawing its claims in redistricting cases in Texas, and revoking its requests to orally argue before the Supreme Court for Louisiana redistricting cases.

    “We write out of grave concern for the reported changes to the mission and work of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, which appear to redirect the Section’s focus towards the extremely rare instances of voter fraud and noncitizen voting. Since its creation by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Division has been charged with enforcing the civil and criminal provisions of federal laws that protect the civil rights of Americans, including the right to vote,” wrote the Senators.

    “Taken together, the Department is clearly pursuing an anti-voter, partisan agenda aligned with 2020 election deniers and conspiracy theorists. We urge you to change course and take a nonpartisan approach to protecting voters’ rights that is grounded in facts and the law, not unfounded speculation and conspiracy theories,” continued the Senators.

    The Senators also expressed concern about the reduction of lawyers in the Voting Section as well as the appointment of Acting Chief Maureen Riordan, a former line attorney in the Section, who has been associated with election skeptics and worked for the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a leading anti-voting legal group. Riordan has appeared on “Stop the Steal” architect Cleta Mitchell’s podcast and made accusations of political bias in the Voting Section, while voicing her disagreement with the Section’s pursuit of cases aimed at protecting voting rights and access to the ballot box for racial minorities.

    Additionally, they highlighted the DOJ’s attacks against election officials, wasting limited resources to examine how existing laws could be used to criminally charge state and local election officials.

    “This clear attempt to intimidate these hardworking individuals, whose work holds up our democracy will not go unchallenged,” added the Senators. “The Department must abandon this effort and instead focus on working on actual problems facing election officials, which includes protecting these officials from the ongoing threats and harassment.”

    In addition to Senators Padilla, Durbin, and Welch, the letter was also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

    Earlier this year, Padilla and his Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee colleagues demanded answers from the DOJ concerning the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department’s Civil Rights Division. The Senators separately called for Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, to immediately hold an oversight hearing with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco-based lawyer leading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, on its politicization. During her Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing in February, Senator Padilla criticized Dhillon for her alarming track record of restricting the right to vote, spreading disinformation about the 2020 election, and perpetuating discriminatory laws.

    Full text of the letter is available here and below:

    Dear Assistant Attorney General Dhillon:

    We write out of grave concern for the reported changes to the mission and work of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, which appear to redirect the Section’s focus towards the extremely rare instances of voter fraud and noncitizen voting. Since its creation by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Division has been charged with enforcing the civil and criminal provisions of federal laws that protect the civil rights of Americans, including the right to vote.

    To start, we are unable to fully understand the Section’s work as the Department has repeatedly refused requests for the memorandum you sent to employees of the Civil Rights Division—which was reported by the Associated Press in May 2025—highlighting the new mission statement for the Voting Section. This refusal to cooperate with such a simple and specific congressional information request is alarming, and we once again renew our request for basic transparency to review this document and confirm these reports are accurate.

    We are particularly concerned about the Voting Section’s unprecedented and intrusive request for significant amounts of election data from the state of Colorado. This overly broad and burdensome request appears to have limited justification and raises alarming questions regarding what the Department intends to do with this information, and which states are next to be targeted. This initial request demands a full, public explanation and exacerbates ongoing concerns about the sharing and misuse of voter data by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency.

    Public reporting and court filings also indicate that the Voting Section is down to a small number of attorneys and that Maureen Riordan—who previously worked for an anti-voting rights group and has associated with individuals who perpetuated falsehoods around the 2020 election, has been appointed as Acting Chief. This raises questions about whether the Section has abandoned its longstanding mission to conduct meaningful voter protection work and will instead act to perpetuate the myth of widespread voter fraud.

    Ms. Riordan’s documented disregard for established legal precedent in the voting rights context is troubling and should disqualify her from leading the Section. For instance, Ms. Riordan recently appeared on election-denier Cleta Mitchell’s podcast and expressed disapproval of the Department’s previous challenges to racial discrimination in the electoral process. Ms. Riordan also joined Ms. Mitchell in spreading false claims of widespread voting by noncitizens and criticizing as negligent states’ voter roll maintenance, among other inflammatory comments. 

    With the significant changes occurring at the Department, we are paying close attention to the Division’s work and are alarmed at how the Section is now using its limited resources. In addition to the recent action in Colorado, the Voting Section is pursuing alleged infractions about proper semantics of “and/or” language on Arizona’s voter registration form, and the Section is requesting that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission withhold any future election security funding for the Wisconsin Elections Commission based on alleged violations of federal elections laws. The Voting Section is also attempting to pursue a partisan agenda by suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections over the same baseless voter registration claim that was at issue in the Republican challenger’s failed attempt to nullify election results to regain a seat on North Carolina’s Supreme Court.

    Recent reporting also indicates the Department is using its limited resources to determine how existing laws could be used against state and local election officials to charge them criminally as they administer elections. This clear attempt to intimidate these hardworking individuals, whose work holds up our democracy will not go unchallenged. The Department must abandon this effort and instead focus on working on actual problems facing election officials, which includes protecting these officials from the ongoing threats and harassment.

    As its priorities shift, the Department is also withdrawing from cases that it has been engaged in for years that are meant to protect the right to vote, including dropping its lawsuit challenging Georgia’s Senate Bill 202, dropping all its claims in several consolidated cases in Texas around redistricting, and withdrawing its requests to participate in oral arguments before the Supreme Court for consolidated cases involving redistricting in Louisiana. Through these actions, it is clear that the Department has abandoned any work protecting the voting rights of communities of color, despite its core mission to enforce the protections of the Voting Rights Act.

    Taken together, the Department is clearly pursuing an anti-voter, partisan agenda aligned with 2020 election deniers and conspiracy theorists. We urge you to change course and take a nonpartisan approach to protecting voters’ rights that is grounded in facts and the law, not unfounded speculation and conspiracy theories.

    We respectfully request specific responses to these concerns and your prompt response in sharing the new mission statement for the Voting Section with Congress without further delay.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Padilla, Schiff Urge Trump Administration to Reverse Staffing Cuts at the National Weather Service, Warn of Devastating Impacts in California

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    Padilla, Schiff Urge Trump Administration to Reverse Staffing Cuts at the National Weather Service, Warn of Devastating Impacts in California

    Senators: “The safety and lives of millions of Americans as well as the economic success of California depend on weather forecasts from the state’s NWS offices.”
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) demanded the Trump Administration reverse the staffing cuts at California National Weather Service (NWS) offices, which jeopardize critical weather services that people rely on during disasters, especially during an active fire season — where more than 2.3 million acres in California face significant fire risk. 
    “The safety and lives of millions of Americans as well as the economic success of California depend on weather forecasts from the state’s National Weather Service offices. Protecting human lives from severe weather events is not a partisan issue, and it is important that the NWS has the workforce required to meet its core mandate to protect human life,” wrote the Senators. 
    Two of the six NWS offices in California — Sacramento and Hanford, which are responsible for providing more than 7 million Californians with extreme weather warnings and information that helps the state’s agriculture industry — were most impacted by these staffing cuts. In their letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Acting Administrator Laura Grimm, the Senators also highlighted that reliable and high-quality weather forecasts are crucial to protecting Californians who face a year-round fire season from deadly consequences. 
    The Senators also emphasized that with the agricultural industry relying on NWS’ services, these staffing shortages may result in direct harm to farmers and economic losses for the state and country. 
    To date, NOAA has failed to be responsive to congressional inquiries on these issues and failed to provide a briefing on NWS staffing cuts in California as requested by Senator Schiff’s office.   
    Full text of the letter here is available here and below: 
    Dear Secretary Howard Lutnick and Administrator Laura Grimm:  
    We write to express deep concern regarding staffing reductions at the National Weather Service (NWS) and plans for Temporary Duty assignments (TDYs) in California, especially considering the already active fire season. On June 2, 2025, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a statement outlining steps the agency will take to attempt to sustain mission-critical operations at NWS offices. This plan includes the use of TDYs to help fill workforce vacancies caused by the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to push federal employees out of the workforce. This reduction in the NWS workforce has left regional offices across California critically understaffed, endangering lives and threatening California’s economy.   
    There are six NWS offices across California—Eureka, Sacramento, San Francisco, Hanford, Los Angeles, and San Diego —and four other offices located in neighboring states which cover portions of California. The Sacramento and Hanford offices were most impacted by DOGE staffing reductions; the Sacramento office currently has a 50 percent vacancy rate, and the Hanford office has a 61.5 percent vacancy rate, one of the worst in the country. These two offices are responsible for providing more than 7 million Californians with extreme weather warnings. Understaffing has forced these offices to cut their hours of operation and limit forecasting and weather warnings. 
    The NWS provides warnings and forecasts for wildfires and burned areas, including issuing fire weather warnings, red flag warnings, burned area debris flow warnings, and other public weather-related preparedness information. In addition to providing information regarding severe weather to the surrounding populace, NWS meteorologists can also be assigned to specific fire incidents.3 NWS meteorologists provide the Incident Management Team (IMT) with real-time weather information such as thunderstorm activity (a high hazard due to lightning strikes) and fire weather (wind direction, wind speed, humidity, temperature, and other information). They also provide specialized information to helicopter and plane crews fighting incipient and ongoing fires, which is critical to the safe and effective management of fires. The significant staffing cuts to these NWS offices will affect standard fire weather forecasting and warnings and the safe execution of firefighting efforts, which can have fatal consequences.   
    More than 2.3 million acres in California face significant fire risk. There have been multiple dangerous fires so far this summer in California, including, the Ranch Fire near Los Angeles which burned 4,293 acres and forced evacuations of Apple Valley; a second near Mono Lake, which closed Highway 395 and forced evacuations of Mono City and Lundy Canyon; and a third, the Bonanza Fire, which forced evacuations near Shingle Springs, CA. Wind speed is strongly and consistently associated with the number of acres burned. This was definitely the case for the Eaton, Palisade, and Ranch Fires in Southern California where the strong Santa Ana winds drove fire spread. In California, fire is a year-round risk, and this reality requires consistent, high-quality, and reliable weather forecasting data to protect Californians 
    Critically, the Sacramento and Hanford offices provide forecasts specifically tailored to the needs of California’s $50 billion agriculture industry. These forecasts provide information that helps farmers plan their planting and harvesting cycles, which is especially important in California, where the climate fluctuates between wet and dry years. Staffing shortages at these NWS offices may result in direct harm to farmers, economic losses for the state and country, and a less stable food supply.   
    Even with the agency’s TDY plan, which will take time to implement and train relocated employees, NWS will suffer from hundreds of personnel shortages. We have serious concerns regarding this plan, which appears to be a temporary and inadequate fix, and its impact on California NWS offices. Consequently, we request answers to the following questions by July 31, 2025:  
    Please provide a breakdown of vacancies at California NWS offices by specialized roles. Please include information on vacancies prior to January 20, 2025, as well.  
    What is the minimum staffing level at the Sacramento and Hanford offices required to maintain 24/7 weather forecasts and weather balloon launches?  
    How many TDYs and new permanent employees will be added to California NWS offices? How long will these positions take to fill?  
    What is the anticipated impact to fire weather-related work? Will there be sufficient staffing to provide for incident-specific meteorologists?  
    What is the expected impact of these staffing shortages on farmers and the food supply chain?  
    The safety and lives of millions of Americans as well as the economic success of California depend on weather forecasts from the state’s NWS offices. Protecting human lives from severe weather events is not a partisan issue, and it is important that the NWS has the workforce required to meet its core mandate to protect human life. Thank you, and we look forward to your response. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Padilla Slams Lifetime Judicial Appointment of Unfit Trump Loyalist Emil Bove as Senate Republicans Continue to Bury Epstein Evidence

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    WATCH: Padilla Slams Lifetime Judicial Appointment of Unfit Trump Loyalist Emil Bove as Senate Republicans Continue to Bury Epstein Evidence

    WATCH: Padilla also denounces Trump Administration’s unserious proposal to reopen Alcatraz

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” this evening to speak out against the nomination of Emil Bove — one of Trump’s personal lawyers with an extensive track record of unethical and unprofessional conduct and political retaliation — to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and to condemn the Trump Administration’s continued refusal to release the Epstein files, despite the President’s public promises to do so. After Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited Alcatraz earlier today, Padilla also criticized the Trump Administration’s unrealistic and wasteful proposal to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison, highlighting the “exorbitant” costs to taxpayers of bringing the facility up to even minimum modern standards.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Bove’s nomination this morning as Padilla and Committee Democrats boycotted the vote in protest of Republicans’ blatant violation of Committee rules, which they used to jam through nominations, including Bove and “Judge Jeanine” Pirro to serve as United States Attorney for D.C., without public debate. At his nominations hearing, Padilla slammed Bove for his role in firing dozens of Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases and his pledge to disregard lawful court orders that check presidential power.

    Key Excerpts:

    On Emil Bove’s nomination and Senate Judiciary Republicans ignoring Senate rules:

    • “What happened today in the Senate Judiciary Committee is just the latest example of Republicans not just tearing down the norms of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but the Senate as a whole.”
    • “Affording Senator Booker an opportunity to ask questions or even to call for a vote on bringing forward…the whistleblower that has come up publicly about Emil Bove’s comments, things like the targeting anybody involved with the prosecutions around January 6, things like, if court orders that come out against what the Trump Administration wanted, they’re just going to ignore them. I mean, the Committee deserves to hear it directly and to consider it before any confirmation votes on Emil Bove. Republicans don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to hear it.”

    On Bove’s potential connection to the Epstein case and Trump Administration’s refusal to release Epstein files:

    • “Emil Bove’s the number three top official in the Justice Department. With everything going on around the Epstein case, and the Epstein files, the involvement of the Attorney General herself, he’s probably been in the room. He’s probably been at the table. What role did he play in determining there is a list, there isn’t a list, should we release files or not? The Committee deserves to hear this before taking action, but this Republican majority doesn’t want to hear it. They’re trying to squelch any information that Donald Trump doesn’t want to go out and Democrats aren’t going to be a party to that.”

    On the Trump Administration’s unserious proposal to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison:

    • “Here they go again, right? It’s nothing but bad news for Donald Trump, between the Epstein files, between economic indicators, prices are going up. So in classic Trump fashion, let’s distract. Right? Let’s talk about something else. Alcatraz is not a serious proposal. The cost of bringing that up to minimum standards to serve as a detention facility — we’ve been hearing from Republicans all year long. They want to reduce the federal budget. They’re looking for cost savings, not unnecessary, exorbitant costs.”
    • “This is just another effort to distract from the horrible news brought to you by the Trump Administration.”

    Video of the full interview is available here.

    During his Senate Judiciary Committee nominations hearing, Senator Padilla pressed Bove on his extensive track record of lies, poor temperament, and political retribution. Earlier this week, Padilla joined Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in calling for Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to schedule a hearing to collect testimony from Mr. Erez Reuveni, former Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Immigration Litigation at the Department of Justice, who disclosed allegations of misconduct and documentation regarding Bove. Previously, Padilla joined Senate Judiciary Democrats in requesting personnel records relevant to Bove from Interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton. Padilla and Senate Judiciary Democrats also filed a professional misconduct complaint against Bove with the New York State Bar, citing reported misconduct in moving to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: U.S., the Philippines Conduct Maritime Cooperative Activity

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    SOUTH CHINA SEA — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and the U.S. Navy, conducted a bilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity (MCA) within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone, demonstrating a collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific, July 16.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Amid Trump Cuts to the FDA, Senators Markey and Booker Introduce Legislation to Get Dangerous Chemicals Out of Food

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

    Bill Text (PDF) | One Pager (PDF)

    Washington (July 17, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) today introduced the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act, legislation that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to strengthen the Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Rule. The GRAS Rule acts as a loophole that is currently used by companies to avoid getting pre-market FDA approval for more than 1,000 food chemicals. As a result of this rule, nearly 99 percent of new food chemicals are able to be added to products without triggering any FDA oversight.

    The Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act would prevent chemicals that have been linked to cancer, developmental toxicity, or reproductive toxicity from being categorized as GRAS. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are cosponsors of the legislation. 

    “Americans deserve to know the food on their kitchen tables is safe for them, their families, and their loved ones to eat,” said Senator Markey. “Our legislation ensures the FDA has the authority it needs to fulfill their responsibility to guarantee the food we eat is safe—free from substances that cause cancer and harm development. It is long past time that we revise existing food safety measures and close the loophole that allows manufacturers to self-regulate which new substances enter our food supply and our bodies.”

    “It is unacceptable that hundreds of new chemicals have entered the food supply without the FDA requiring an independent, scientific review of their safety. This has led to the use of ingredients that have evidence of carcinogenicity or endocrine disruption in thousands of food products,” said Senator Booker. “This legislation will require the FDA to thoroughly review new chemicals before they can be added to foods, finally closing the loophole that has left Americans at risk.”

    “The Ensuring Safe and Toxic Free Foods Act is an important step towards fixing the broken GRAS system that allows manufacturers to put food chemicals on the market without notifying FDA. We must not allow toxic additives to slip through the GRAS loophole and stay in the food supply for decades without getting reassessed for safety. EDF appreciates Senator Markey’s years of leadership on this critical issue to protect Americans’ health,” said Maria Doa, Senior Director of Chemicals Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund.

    “EWG applauds the reintroduction of the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act. For too long, food and chemical companies have exploited loopholes that allow them, not the FDA, to decide what is safe. This bill restores common sense to our federal food chemical regulations and will help ensure that the chemicals added to our food are safe,” said Melanie Benesh, Vice President of Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group.

    “For far too long, companies have utilized the GRAS loophole to secretly introduce new chemicals into our foods without even notifying the FDA,” said Anupama Joshi, Vice President of Programs, Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act of 2025 will finally close the GRAS loophole by requiring meaningful independent, science-based safety review by the FDA.”

    Specifically, the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act would direct the FDA to revise the GRAS Rule to include provisions that:

    • Prohibit manufacturers from designating substances as safe without supplying proper notice and supporting information to the Secretary of HHS.
    • Require safety information be publicly available on the FDA website and subject to a 90-day public review period.
    • Prohibit carcinogenic substances from receiving GRAS designation.
    • Prohibit substances that show evidence of reproductive or developmental toxicity from receiving GRAS designation.
    • Prohibit people with conflicts of interest from serving as experts in reviewing and evaluating scientific data regarding GRAS designations.
    • Create a procedure of reassessment for substances receiving previous GRAS designations.

    The Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act is endorsed by the Environmental Working Group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the Environmental Defense Fund.

    Senator Markey has long been an advocate for food safety and a strong FDA. In 2024, Senator Markey and Senator Booker urged the agency to ban phthalates—chemicals that affect the durability, flexibility, and transparency of plastics—from use in food contact materials (FCM) due to their effect on brain development in infants and children.

    In 2016, he called on the FDA to take steps to strengthen the GRAS rule and update guidance to mitigate conflicts of interest for outside experts evaluating GRAS substances. In 2018, he sent the FDA a letter about reports that Johnson & Johnson had concealed information about baby powder products containing carcinogenic substances from regulators and the public. In 2019, Senator Markey sent a letter to the FDA, urging it to establish mandatory standards to strictly limit heavy metals in children’s food, including fruit juices.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: As Republicans Gut Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood, Sen. Markey, Rep. Fletcher Host Spotlight Hearing on Republican Attacks on Birth Control Access

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

    Watch: Senator Markey hosts spotlight hearing on birth control access in the Post-Roe Era

    Washington (July 17, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee’s Subcommittee on Primary Health & Retirement Security, and Representative Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) held a hearing yesterday titled “A Right at Risk: Protecting the Right to Contraception and Reproductive Freedom in the Post-Roe Era” to spotlight how Republican attacks on birth control access threaten reproductive freedom nationwide. Earlier this month, Republicans cut millions in Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in their so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which Trump signed into law.

    “As Republicans pursue their agenda of unprecedented cuts to our health programs, banning funding for Planned Parenthood and ripping health care away from millions of Americans, the threat to the right to contraception is no longer hypothetical—it is real, and it is here,” said Senator Markey. “We must meet this moment with the urgency it deserves. We must pass the Right to Contraception Act and guarantee that reproductive freedom does not depend on where you live or who is in power in your statehouse. We cannot allow MAGA extremists to roll back decades of progress. And we will not stop until the right to contraception and reproductive freedom is protected—for everyone, everywhere.”

    “As Republicans wage unprecedented and unconstitutional attacks on Americans’ health care, it is important for us to hear from those on the frontlines of the fight for reproductive freedom,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher. “Millions of Americans rely on contraception of all kinds to plan their families and their lives, and ninety percent of Americans support access to all forms of birth control. I am grateful to Senator Markey for joining me in hosting today’s hearing to bring this important issue to light. As a representative from a state intent on taking away our right and our access to quality, affordable reproductive health care, I will continue to do everything I can to protect the health, privacy, dignity, and autonomy of women and families across our country.”

    Senator Markey and Representative Fletcher were joined by several reproductive rights experts and advocates who delivered testimony on how Republican attacks on birth control access harm communities across the country.

    “Across the country—and in my home state of Indiana—birth control is being targeted through misinformation and ideology that are completely disconnected from science and clinical reality. These attacks are not about patient safety or public health. They are about control and because of the broad popularity of contraception, they are designed to be less noticeable,” said Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine. Read Dr. Tracey Wilkinson’s testimony here.

    “Access to contraception is essential to sexual and reproductive healthcare and gender equity. Contraception is not merely a matter of personal choice; it is healthcare, and access to this healthcare has a large and positive impact on maternal and infant health outcomes, economic stability, and prosperous, safe communities. Nonetheless, the advances we have made in a ‘purple’ state like Virginia are clearly precarious,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of REPRO Rising Virginia. “And—if a state like Virginia can’t rely on its own government to protect and advance its right to contraception, then surely other state governments, ones that are more openly attacking reproductive rights, cannot be expected to do the same.” Read Tarina Keene’s testimony here.

    “Jane’s Due Process has helped young Texans access reproductive healthcare for almost 25 years. Texas has required parental involvement for access to prescriptive birth control for young people under 18 since 1998, and in 2022, a federal judge determined that Title X federal family planning providers could no longer provide prescriptive birth control to Texas teens without parental consent despite decades of protected federal provision. We hear every day from young people negatively impacted by these barriers. We believe that everyone, including young people, deserve the right to self-determination, and full access to the complete spectrum of family planning options, including birth control, is a big part of ensuring that right. We need to protect and expand young people’s access to contraception so that they can make the decisions for their own futures that are right for them,” said Lucie Arvallo, Executive Director, Jane’s Due Process. Read Lucie Arvallo’s testimony here.

    “Contraception is a key component of reproductive health care. The decision about whether, when, or how to become a parent is one of the most important life decisions we make. For the past sixty years, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England has touched the lives of more than a million people in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, including for birth control services. We are an integral part of the health care system and proudly provide the highest quality, nonjudgmental care to all who walk through our doors. Patients count on us. The reality is that in rural states like ours, you’d be hard pressed to find someone whose life hasn’t been touched by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England,” said Nicole Clegg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. “That’s why the attacks targeting Planned Parenthood are so dangerous. The harm caused when we are forced to leave a community is well documented. People’s health is jeopardized. They go without care. Cancers are left undetected. Unintended pregnancy rates rise, and pregnancy outcomes worsen. Birth control is essential health care. No one wants politicians and judges involved in their medical decisions. People want to be able to see their trusted provider, get medically accurate information, and have peace of mind. Thank you to our champions in Congress for shining a light on the devastating outcomes of the attacks on birth control and the providers who make access possible.” Read Nicole Clegg’s testimony here.

    “Contraception is essential health care — and a vital tool that allows people to decide if, when, and how to grow their families,” said Taylor St. Germain, Deputy Director of Reproductive Equity Now. “When it came to Roe, we waited too long to act, and that delay cost us dearly. We can’t make that same mistake again. I’m grateful to Senator Markey and Representative Fletcher for bringing us together for this critical, timely hearing to protect our care and defend our right to contraception at the federal level before it’s too late.” Read Taylor St. Germain’s testimony here.

    In February 2025, Senator Markey reintroduced the Right to Contraception Act, legislation that would create a statutory right to obtain and use contraceptives and ensure health care providers have a right to provide contraceptives, contraception, and share information about this essential care.

    In September 2024, Senator Markey joined Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in support of the Right to IVF Act, legislation that would establish a nationwide right to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technology, as well as lower the costs of IVF treatment for the millions of families who need it to have their children. In October 2023, Senator Markey, alongside with other Democratic Senators urged the Biden administration to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter birth control, with no out-of-pocket costs or prescription barrier.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Boozman-Led Bill to Deliver Investments to Natural State Veterans and Servicemembers Advanced by Senate Appropriations Committee

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Arkansas – John Boozman

    Senator Boozman Delivers Opening Remarks Ahead of Committee Passage

    WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), Chairman of the Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Appropriations Subcommittee, released the following statement after the Senate Committee on Appropriations advanced legislation he crafted that secures key funding for Arkansas military and defense priorities:

    “This bipartisan bill delivers the funding, tools and resources necessary to maintain and strengthen America’s defense infrastructure and capabilities. I am proud to champion The Natural State’s critical role in bolstering our national defense –including $93 million to the Red River Army Depot and support for the Arkansas National Guard – and welcome the recommitment to those who have and currently serve through improving mental health care, access to suicide prevention services and funding the modernization of VA hospital systems.”

    Boozman secured funding for Arkansas National Guard planning projects and $93 million for the Red River Army Depot’s project, “CTC: Component Rebuild Shop” to repair and extend the life of military equipment. 

    This legislation also includes key investments in military housing, improvements to VA electronic health and IT systems and critical funding for telehealth, women’s health initiatives and medical innovation. 

    The full measure, advanced by a vote of 26-3, will now move to the Senate for consideration.

    Background

    The FY 2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Appropriations Act provides over $153 billion in discretionary funding, including $19.8 billion in defense funding and $133.6 billion in nondefense funding.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth, Durbin Help Reintroduce Bill to Help Families Get the Affordable Child Care They Need

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth
    July 17, 2025
    [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), U.S. Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03) and their colleagues in reintroducing the Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need.
    “For most working parents, affordable child care isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity,” said Duckworth. “Donald Trump ran on a promise to lower costs for working families—and yet, he and Republicans are prioritizing tax breaks to their billionaire donors, leaving families to fend for themselves. If Republicans really cared about lowering costs and supporting middle-class families, they’d help us pass this legislation to help solve our child care shortage and make quality, affordable care more accessible to every family who needs it.”
    “Working families in Illinois deserve high-quality, affordable, and reliable child care, but this necessity has become an out-of-reach luxury. While the cost of care continues to rise, President Trump has held up critical government funding and dished out tax breaks for billionaires rather than address the child care crisis,” said Durbin. “It’s time working families had better options. Under the Child Care for Working Families Act, parents would have better access to affordable child care, including pre-kindergarten programs, and caregivers would earn the living wages they deserve.”
    As President Trump and Republicans in Congress choose to spend trillions on new tax cuts for billionaires and the biggest corporations, kick Americans off their health care, cut kids off from nutrition assistance and raise costs on everyday essentials for working families, Democrats in Congress are continuing their push to help working people make ends meet—including by tackling the childcare crisis.
    The cost of child care nationwide continues to rise—and far from helping tackle it, President Trump is exacerbating the affordability crisis. The average cost of child care is now $13,128—a 29% increase since 2020 that outpaces inflation. In 49 states and the District of Columbia, the average annual costs of child care for two children exceed median rent—and in 41 states and the District of Columbia, the cost of care for one infant exceeds in-state university tuition. The crisis costs the U.S. economy over $100 billion each year. Nonetheless, President Trump has gutted oversight of and support for the federal childcare office, held up childcare funding to states, held up Head Start funding and now created massive holes in states’ budgets with the “Big Beautiful Bill’s” cuts to Medicaid and SNAP—which may well force states to pare back on their own investments in child care. While two-thirds of Americans oppose Republicans’ Big Beautiful Betrayal that President Trump signed into law earlier this month, over three-quarters of Americans support increased investment to help families afford child care.
    The Child Care for Working Families Act would tackle the childcare crisis head-on: ensuring families can afford the child care they need, expanding access to more high-quality options, stabilizing the child care sector and helping ensure child care workers taking care of our nation’s kids are paid livable wages. The legislation would also dramatically expand access to pre-K and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increase wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, typical family in America will pay no more than $15 a day for child care—with many families paying nothing at all—and no eligible family will pay more than 7% of their income on child care.
    The Child Care for Working Families Act would help:
    Make child care affordable for working families.
    The typical family earning the state median income would pay less than $15 a day for child care.
    No working family would pay more than seven percent of their income on child care.
    Families earning below 85% of state median income would pay nothing at all for child care.
    If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts or Head Start agencies.

    Improve the quality and supply of child care for all children and expand families’ child care options by:

    Addressing childcare deserts by providing grants to help open new childcare providers in underserved communities.
    Providing grants to cover start-up and licensing costs to help establish new providers.
    Increasing childcare options for children who receive care during non-traditional hours.
    Supporting child care for children who are dual-language learners, children who are experiencing homelessness and children in foster care.

    Support higher wages for child care workers.

    Childcare workers would be paid a living wage and achieve parity with elementary school teachers who have similar credentials and experience.
    Childcare subsidies would cover the cost of providing high-quality care.

    Dramatically expand access to high-quality pre-K.

    States would receive funding to establish and expand a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
    States must prioritize establishing and expanding universal local preschool programs within and across high-need communities.
    If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts or Head Start agencies.

    Better support Head Start programs by providing the funding necessary to offer full-day, full-year programming and increasing wages for Head Start workers.
    Along with Duckworth, Durbin and Murray, the legislation is cosponsored by 41 additional U.S. Senators—the most in the bill’s history: U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
    The full text of the bill is available on Senator Duckworth’s website.
    – 30 –

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the 2026 Energy and Water Development Funding Bill

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)

    Washington, DC — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the full committee’s markup of its fiscal year 2026 bill:

    Thank you very much, Chairman Cole. Ranking Member DeLauro, my dear friend, Chair Fleischmann and all the members as we gather today to mark up this Fiscal Year 2026 Energy and Water Development Bill. I have to restate, Chairman Fleischmann, I have truly appreciated working with you. You are always open to suggestions and, to all of our colleagues on this subcommittee that is a very, bipartisan subcommittee to develop and pass these bills, and our committee has long had this practice. We affect every single Congressional District in this country.

    I’m truly saddened that this vital subcommittee is, being steered yet again to return to a partisan process not caused by our subcommittee, but as we move forward with this Fiscal Year 2026 House bill.

    I would like to begin by thanking our diligent staff for all their hard work on this bill from the minority staff Scott McKee, Anisha Singh, and Adam Wilson, and on our personal staff, Kaitlin Ulin, TJ Lowdermilk, and Margaret McInnis. Truly thank you to you all.

    Engineered energy and water systems undergird America’s way of life. They are not optional, but essential to sustaining life. Of late, we have been piercingly reminded about our subcommittee’s purpose, especially as related to water management by the extreme flash flooding and tragic loss of over 132 lives, and with over 101 missing, in the Guadalupe River catchment area in Texas.

    The deadly West Virginia flash flooding this past month significantly damaged over 100 homes. Unfortunately, taking the lives of at least nine people, including a three year old, in Valley Grove, West Virginia. And we’ve seen flooding events in central North Carolina and New Mexico. All our hearts go out to the families of the victims and their communities. These tragedies inform us of the power of water and wild energy in our atmosphere. Not because of cloud seeding, but because of nature’s awesome power generated inside the thin seven layer atmosphere surrounding our spinning and rotating earth. Let me be clear. No matter how much members on the other side of the aisle want to pretend that the climate isn’t changing, for the record, the last ten years are the ten hottest in recorded history.

    So many have been held up on their plane flights back here. It’s an unusual change in the weather across this country, and members are personally experiencing these delays, as are the American people. These recent floods are made worse by the heating atmosphere. We had four 1,000 year floods last week alone. That is a record.

    So far in July, our country has seen over 1,200 flooding events, more than double the normal for an average July, and we’re just halfway through the month. Constitutionally, it is our sworn duty to prepare and protect the people in our communities, and it is hard to accept that no warning sirens had been installed along the Guadalupe River, despite prior tragedies along that very treacherous corridor. Our nation needs to install warning systems and build resilient infrastructure, and we are behind.

    For example, in a district like mine, we had to bring funding for tornado sirens many years ago. I was shocked that they didn’t exist. And in Ohio, we do zone to prevent flooding from threatening human life. But many places in our country do not, and we cannot keep bailing out places that are irresponsible in their behavior. My home in the City of Toledo has gone into Billions of dollars of debt to build new sewers, along with gigantic underground catchment basins, some as large as two football fields in size, in order to handle increasing water loads.

    We are making investments all over our district to protect Lake Erie shoreline and its tributaries. But in places where infrastructure investments aren’t cost effective, how does our nation make sure that families will be protected with adequate local planning and disaster warning systems? America needs more rigor in land and water planning systems, and my friends, quite frankly, we as a nation don’t get a grade A on that.

    It is our awesome responsibility as public servants to address the structural shortcomings at the federal, state, and local level that contributed to the recent loss of life. Sadly, this Republican energy and water bill does not meet our nation’s imperative for the future. It’s over $700 Million below last year. We must invest faster in modern infrastructure, and become energy independent in perpetuity. That is our responsibility. In a nation of 350 million people headed to 500 million people, we must make energy cost less and invest in grid resilience, which is sadly behind what this country needs.

    I find it interesting that Russell Vought, the chief architect of the budget cuts that we are being asked to endure in this bill, claims that he’s so savvy. But how is it possible? He’s supposed to be known as a budget cutter, right? But how is it possible that he has added $3.4 Trillion, despite our cuts to the national debt over the next ten years? Over 20 years, he’s adding $9.5 Trillion, and $18.7 Trillion by 30 years out. So that’s a total of $32 Trillion, if temporary measures are extended permanently. Think about that one. So if they’re doing such a good job over there at the Executive Branch and OMB, how come the national debt is rising when we’re cutting every single bill that we are discussing today, and those that will follow?

    This bill fails to address the cost of living crisis. The price of electricity has risen 5.8% over the last year. Every family in this country knows that, and even higher energy bills lie ahead for families and businesses. China is investing record levels in energy, my friends. But this bill retreats from US global leadership in the future in the form of a diversified and clean energy economy. This energy and water bill cuts $1.6 Billion, or 47%, from the Department of Energy’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. The adage analysis prevention is worth a pound of cure applies to our nation’s imperative to deliver clean, affordable, and secure energy to the American people and to ensure our nation leads, not lags, in the global race toward energy independence in perpetuity, including an abundant clean energy future.

    Our mom and dad taught us how to be thrifty and not wasteful. Dad would say, “it’s not how much you make, it’s how much you save,” and that applies to energy and fresh water. Conservation are good goals for the future of our children and grandchildren, and we’ve made some strides toward those horizons. The United States on the oil front is producing more than ever before, record high levels of production, but we are still tethered to a volatile global energy market dominated by cartels and petroleum dictators like OPEC. We must advance an all of the above energy strategy to be successful long term. Europe learned the hard way about being too reliant on one source of energy, Russian gas. In their case when Russia invaded Ukraine. Let us heed that chilling warning.

    China aims to be the OPEC for the next century, and gain dominance in clean energy, and they are well on their way. Their investments dwarf the rest of the world’s. A Chinese company has developed an EV battery. Are you ready for this? That can travel 1,800 miles in a single charge and recharge in just five minutes. Think about that. What sense does it make for this Energy and Water Bill to slash the Department of Energy’s vital research and development programs?

    The Republican plan cripples America’s energy future by awarding giant tax breaks to Millionaires and Billionaires in the Big Billionaire Bonanza Bill that’s creating the big, huge additions to the debt. America must focus on building an economy that works for everyone, especially our working families and retirees, not just the wealthy few. The bill this bill eliminates funding for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, and worse, it revokes $5.1 Billion of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law resources from the Department of Energy that will cede the US global lead in hydrogen, direct air capture, battery recycling, and energy savings in every public and private structure. Already, US businesses have canceled. This is shocking number. More than $15 Billion in investments in new factories and electricity production projects this year, as a result of the Republican Bonanza for Billionaires Bill. Those canceled projects were expected to create nearly 12,000 new jobs, all now gone.

    I can remember when we brought back the heavy Ford heavy truck line from Mexico to the region that I represent, and I stood next to the CEO of the company at that time, and I said, what can I do to keep these jobs anchored here in Northern Ohio? And he looked at me and he didn’t waste a moment. He said, cut my energy bills by a third. Well, think about that one.

    Thus I strongly oppose the Republican cuts to vital energy production and conservation and our future through the US Department of Energy. Shortchanging these advances pushes our nation backwards and raises already high energy prices for consumers. Why drive America backwards by slow walking energy innovation and failing to modernize our nation’s electric grids, which are old.

    In other areas, this bill dangerously short changes our national security, and this is really critical. The bill slashes $412 Million from the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation account. This effectively guts our efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, detect covert nuclear threats, and uphold arms control agreements that keep us safe. All a big gift for Iran, Russia, China, Belarus, and North Korea. Think about that Spiderweb of Tyranny.

    Additionally, this bill turns its back on communities still living with the toxic legacy of America’s atomic past. Zeroing out the Army Corps program to clean up radioactive waste at early nuclear sites. It slashes $779 Million from the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup efforts. Delaying the cleanup of these communities have been promised for decades. I’ll note for the committee that one of these sites is in the village of Luckey, Ohio, not so far from my district, and believe me, you don’t want to breathe in or ingest atomic waste anywhere in the world. Finally, this bill includes numerous controversial poison pill riders that sadly show some extremists among us are not interested in real bills that can gain bipartisan support and become law.

    In closing, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. America can, and must meet the new age frontiers of energy and water. We owe it to the future. Nature is signaling, times are changing. And it’s good to remind ourselves, 200 years after Daniel Webster stated this, that is up on the wall in the House of Representatives chamber. “Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether also we in our time and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.” That is our mandate today.

    Thank you, and I yield back.

    # # #

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Pressley Condemns Dangerous SCOTUS Ruling Attacking Access to Healthcare for Medicaid Patients

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)

    Medina v. Planned Parenthood Ruling Will Rob Patients of their Lives, Put Essential Healthcare Further Out of Reach for Millions

    Ruling Will Cut Off Medicaid Funding, Undermine Planned Parenthood Providing Critical Healthcare Services, Including Cancer Screenings, Birth Control, and Preventative Care

    WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, issued the following statement on the harmful Medina v. Planned Parenthood ruling, the Supreme Court’s decision to allow South Carolina to bar Medicaid patients from receiving healthcare services at Planned Parenthood. The decision allows states to ban the organization from getting Medicaid reimbursements for cancer screenings, wellness checks, pre-natal care, and other basic medical services.

    “This cruel, unjust, and political ruling by this far-right majority court is nothing short of damning. On the very week that we marked the somber anniversary of the Supreme Court ripping away our right to abortion care, the Court issued another devastating blow that will push basic, essential healthcare further out of reach for millions.

    “Planned Parenthood is often folks’ only local option for essential care, including cancer screenings, wellness-checks, and pre-natal care. By cutting off Medicaid funding for this routine healthcare, the Court is going to rob patients of their lives, and will be especially harmful for Black women, people of color, low-income folks, the LGBTQIA community, and those in rural and underserved communities.

    “We are witnessing the most sweeping attempt yet to dismantle Medicaid and rip away essential healthcare as the Republicans try to ram their Big Ugly Bill through the Senate on the heels of this court ruling. Trump and Republicans are attacking our healthcare at every level of government—and today the Supreme Court majority linked arms to advance their cruel agenda. It’s absolutely shameful.”

    “We refuse to accept their harmful agenda as an inevitability. Planned Parenthood has long provided quality, compassionate care to all and we will always stand with them. We refuse to cede to such unconscionable attacks on the basic right to healthcare.”

    This week, in the wake of the third anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Congresswoman Pressley has spent the week convening leaders and impacted families, renewing her calls for comprehensive legislation to protect abortion care, and uplifting the experiences of people impacted by cruel abortion bans and denials of essential medical care.

    Congresswoman Pressley has been outspoken in demanding justice for Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old pregnant mother who was declared brain dead in February and was forced to remain on life support due to Georgia’s abortion ban. Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned floor speech in which she underscored that Adriana’s case is far too common in the unjust history of denying Black women their dignity, humanity, and right to bodily autonomy – and that GOP abortion bans such as Georgia’s deepen this pain and bar critical healthcare freedom. Last week, Rep. Pressley issued a statement after Adriana’s infant son Chance was delivered via emergency Cesarean section and Adriana was taken off life support.

    Throughout her time in Congress, Rep. Pressley has fought persistently to protect fundamental reproductive and sexual healthcare rights. 

    • On the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Rep. Pressley introduced the Abortion Justice Act, sweeping, intersectional legislation to address access to abortion care and put forth a comprehensive vision of a just America where abortion care is readily available—without stigma, shame or systemic barriers—for all who seek it, regardless of zip code, immigration status, income, or background.
    • Rep. Pressley is a lead co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion care, everywhere. 
    • Rep. Pressley is also a lead co-sponsor of the EACH Act, bold legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment and help guarantee abortion coverage—regardless of how a patient gets their health insurance.
    • Shortly before the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide. 
    • Rep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.
    • In October 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on Josseli Barnica, who died on Sept. 3, 2021 after being denied emergency abortion care in Texas as she suffered a miscarriage.
    • In September 2024, in a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Hearing, Rep. Pressley highlighted the harmful and deadly impact of abortion bans in America to date, and outlined in detail the shameful circumstances under which Amber Nicole Thurman died after being denied necessary abortion care in Georgia.
    • In June 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Idaho v. United States; Moyle v. United States – the case about whether emergency abortion care is included under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). 
    • In May 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on a Louisiana bill that would classify medication abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. 
    • In April 2024, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley played “Fact or Fiction” with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf to emphasize the safety and efficacy of medication abortion drug mifepristone.
    • In August 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Fifth Circuit Court decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
    • In July 2023, Rep. Pressley, alongside Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Cori Bush (MO-01), and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), reintroduced the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, legislation to help people with disabilities—who face discrimination and extra barriers when seeking care—get better access to reproductive healthcare and the informed care they need to control their own reproductive lives.
    • In July 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of over-the-counter birth control.
    • In May 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the FDA Advisory Committee’s unanimous, 17-0 vote to recommend the approval of the first-ever application for over-the-counter birth control. She and Senator Murray also held a press conference applauding the decision and urging the FDA to approval over-the-counter birth control without delay.
    • In May 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Ami Bera, MD (CA-06) and Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), reintroduced their bicameral Affordability is Access Act to ensure that once the FDA determines an over-the-counter birth control option to be safe, insurers fully cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs.
    • In April 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Texas court ruling on mifepristone, and discussed the Texas case in a recent floor speech in which she affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care and access to mifepristone as essential. She later joined Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabth Warren (D-MA), and local leaders in announcing action to protect Mifepristone in Massachusetts.
    • In March 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Schakowsky, Lee, DeGette, Torres and Strickland, reintroduced the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act harmful and discriminatory Helms Amendment and expand abortion access globally.
    • In March 2023, Rep. Pressley and Senator Hirono led their colleagues in reintroducing a bicameral congressional resolution honoring abortion providers and clinic staff. 
    • In March 2023, Rep. Pressley delivered a speech in which she discussed the pending court case in Texas, which aims to restrict access to medication abortion across the entire nation. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care, and accessibility to the abortion pill mifepristone as essential.
    • In September 2021, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Supreme Court’s inaction on SB-8, Texas’ restrictive abortion law. Later that month, she participated in a House Oversight Committee hearing to examine the threat posed by abortion bans and underscored the urgency of the Senate passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. 
    • In April 2021, Rep. Pressley, along with Congresswomen Barbara Lee (CA-13), Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), led a group of 131 Democratic members in reintroducing the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act or the EACH Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure that all people, regardless of income, insurance or zip code, can make personal reproductive healthcare decisions without interference from politicians. She re-Introduced the legislation In January 2023.
    • Rep. Pressley has led calls in Congress for the FDA to remove medically unnecessary restrictions on the medication abortion drug mifepristone, and applauded the FDA’s action in January 2023 to allow retail pharmacies to dispense abortion medication pills.
    • As Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’s Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, Congresswoman Pressley has led the fight to repeal the Hyde Amendments from annual Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bills and in July 2020 published a Medium post on the importance of doing so. She applauded the removal of the Hyde Amendment in President Biden’s FY2022 budget.
    • In May 2020, she led more than 155 Members of Congress in calling on House Democratic leadership to ensure that any future COVID-19 relief packages rejected Republican efforts to use the public health crisis to diminish abortion access.
    • In August 2021, Rep. Pressley, Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee led more than 70 of their House Democratic colleagues in introducing a resolution in support of equitable, science-based policies governing access to medication abortion care. 
    • In January 2023, Rep. Pressley introduced a resolution to condemn all forms of political violence in the U.S., regardless of its target or intent. That same day, she delivered a powerful speech on the House floor slamming Republicans’ harmful, misleading anti-abortion resolution.
    • In September 2022, Rep. Pressley hosted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester for a convening on their work to address the Black maternal health crisis and the criminalization of abortion care in states across the nation following the harmful U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. 
    • In May 2019, she led more than 100 colleagues in introducing H.Con.Res.40, a resolution reaffirming the House of Representative’s support for Roe v. Wade.
    • In June 2019, Rep. Pressley introduced H.R. 3296, the Affordability is Access Act, to make oral contraception available without a prescription. 
    • In September 2016, as a member of the Boston City Council, Pressley championed a resolution calling on Congress and President Obama to repeal the Hyde Amendment and reinstate insurance coverage for abortion services.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Exercise Keris Strike 25 Launches, Featuring United States, Malaysian, and Australian Forces

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    PERAK, Malaysia – The Malaysian Army officially launched Exercise Keris Strike 25 (KrS25) today, a trilateral military training event involving the U.S. Army and Australian Defence Force (ADF). Held July 17–31 in Perak, this year marks the 30th iteration of the exercise, which began as a bilateral engagement between Malaysia and the United States in 1994. For only the second time, the ADF joins as a full participant, elevating the exercise to a trilateral level.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Exercise Keris Strike 25 Launches, Featuring United States, Malaysian, and Australian Forces

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    PERAK, Malaysia – The Malaysian Army officially launched Exercise Keris Strike 25 (KrS25) today, a trilateral military training event involving the U.S. Army and Australian Defence Force (ADF). Held July 17–31 in Perak, this year marks the 30th iteration of the exercise, which began as a bilateral engagement between Malaysia and the United States in 1994. For only the second time, the ADF joins as a full participant, elevating the exercise to a trilateral level.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Security with Respect to Sterile Medical Equipment

    Source: US Whitehouse

    class=”has-text-align-center”>By the President of the United States of America

    A Proclamation

    1.  The use of ethylene oxide is critical for the sterilization of medical equipment, which protects patients against infection and the transmission of disease.  The continued utilization of ethylene oxide by commercial sterilization facilities is essential to ensuring that our Nation provides its sick and injured with the best outcomes possible — an objective that is at the forefront of the Federal Government’s responsibility to the American people.  
    2.  On April 5, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency published a final rule, pursuant to section 112 of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7412, titled National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants:  Ethylene Oxide Emissions Standards for Sterilization Facilities Residual Risk and Technology Review, 89 FR 24090 (EtO Rule).  The EtO Rule imposes new emissions-control requirements on commercial sterilization facilities. 
    3.  The EtO Rule places severe burdens on commercial sterilization facilities.  About 50 percent of all sterile medical devices in the United States are sterilized with ethylene oxide, and sterilization with ethylene oxide may be the only method of sterilizing many medical devices without damaging them.  By requiring compliance with standards premised on the application of emissions-control technologies that do not exist in a commercially viable form, the EtO Rule risks making critical sterile medical devices unavailable to care for patients in our civilian and military medical systems.  The current compliance timeline as set forth at 89 FR 24101-24103 of the EtO Rule will likely force existing sterilization facilities to close down, seriously disrupting the supply of medical equipment.  Our Nation would be unable to adequately supply the sterilized medical equipment that medical personnel need to safely treat their patients in hospitals, operating rooms, and other medical facilities.  In short, the current compliance timeline would undermine our national security.
    NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7412(i)(4), do hereby proclaim that certain stationary sources subject to the EtO Rule, as identified in Annex I of this proclamation, are exempt from compliance with the EtO Rule for a period of 2 years beyond the EtO Rule’s relevant compliance dates (Exemption).  This Exemption applies to all compliance deadlines established under the EtO Rule applicable to the stationary sources listed in Annex I, with each such deadline extended by 2 years from the date originally required for such deadline.  The effect of this Exemption is that, during each such 2-year period, these stationary sources will remain subject to the emissions and compliance obligations in effect prior to the issuance of the EtO Rule.  In support of this Exemption, I hereby make the following determinations:

    The technology to implement the EtO Rule is not available.  Such technology does not exist in a commercially viable form sufficient to allow implementation of and compliance with the EtO Rule by the compliance dates set forth in the EtO Rule.

    It is in the national security interests of the United States to issue this Exemption for the reasons stated in paragraphs 1 and 3 of this proclamation.

      IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
      seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.

                                     DONALD J. TRUMP

      ANNEX I
           1. International Sterilization Laboratory
                 i. Affected Facility/Source: Groveland Facility, Florida 

      1. Becton Dickinson and Company
        1. Affected Facility/Source:
          1. BD Covington, Georgia
          2. BD Madison, Georgia
          3. BD Medical, Utah
          4. BD Medical Pharmaceutical Systems, Nebraska
          5. Edwards Lifesciences Technology Sàrl, Puerto Rico

        3. KPR US, LLC d/b/a Kendall Patient Recovery 
                    i. Affected Facility/Source: Augusta Facility, Georgia 

      1. MedXL, LLC
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Ardmore Facility, Oklahoma
      1. Aligned Medical Solutions
        1. Affected Facility/Source:
          1. 1602 4th Ave. Facility, Billings, Montana
          2. 1400 Montana Ave. Facility, Billings, Montana
      1. Professional Contract Sterilization, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Taunton Facility, Massachusetts
      1. Sterigenics U.S., LLC
        1. Affected Facility/Source:
          1. Atlanta Facility, Georgia
          2. Charlotte Facility, North Carolina 
          3. Grand Prairie Facility, Texas
          4. 4900 S Gifford Ave. Facility, Los Angeles, California
          5. 4801-63 E 50th St. Facility, Los Angeles, California
          6. Ontario Facility, California
          7. Queensbury Facility, New York
          8. Salt Lake City Facility, Utah
          9. Santa Teresa Facility, New Mexico
      1. Cosmed Group, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source:
          1. Erie Facility, Pennsylvania
          2. Franklin Facility, New Jersey
          3. Linden Facility, New Jersey
      1. Arthrex
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Ave Maria Facilities (2), Florida
      1. Cook Incorporated
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Ellettsville North Facility, Indiana
      2. ALCON Research Ltd.
        1. Affected Facility/Source: ALCON Advance Optic Device Center, North Facility, West Virginia
      1. B. Braun U.S. Device Manufacturing LLC
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Allentown Manufacturing Facility, Pennsylvania
      1. DeRoyal Industries, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source:
          1. 1135 Highway 33 South, New Tazewell, Tennessee
          2. 1211 Highway 33 South, New Tazewell, Tennessee
      1. Sterilization Services of Georgia, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Atlanta Facility, Georgia
      1. Sterilization Services of Virginia, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Richmond Facility, Virginia
      1. Trinity Sterile, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Trinity Sterile, Inc., Maryland
      1. LivaNova USA, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source: LivaNova Arvada Facility, Colorado
      1. Covidien LP
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Covidien North Haven Facility, Connecticut
      1. Medtronic Xomed LLC
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Jacksonville Facility, Florida
      1. Medtronic Puerto Rico Operations Company, Inc.
        1. Affected Facility/Source:
          1. Villalba Facility, Puerto Rico
          2. Juncos Facility, Puerto Rico
      1. Advanced Product Solutions
        1. Affected Facility/Source: Columbia Facility, Alabama

      Affected Facility/Source: Salinas, Puerto Rico

      Steri-Tech, Inc.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Club World Cup ends with success, controversy and questions

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    FIFA’s bold reimagining of the Club World Cup (CWC) culminated July 13, ushering in what the governing body hailed as “a golden era of club football.”

    The expanded 32-team format, along with sweeping technological and presentation changes, aimed to elevate the tournament’s global appeal, fairness and influence. While the 2025 edition delivered significant successes, it also revealed persistent challenges that demand attention.

    GLOBAL PARTICIPATION EXPANDS

    The most radical change was the expansion from seven to 32 teams. Players from 81 countries and regions took the pitch, many experiencing FIFA’s top-tier competition for the first time. This dismantled the previous barrier that limited participation mostly to continental champions, advancing FIFA’s mission to “truly globalize football.”

    Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (R) of Paris Saint-Germain vies with Malo Gusto of Chelsea FC during the final match between Chelsea FC (England) and Paris Saint-Germain (France) at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 at the MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, the United States, July 13, 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

    Smaller clubs responded with enthusiasm. Facing giants like Real Madrid and Manchester City enriched player resumes and sparked pride back home-fulfilling FIFA’s core goal of showcasing diverse football cultures.

    “It shows how big football is worldwide and how good some of these players are,” said Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane. “I’m loving this tournament so far, and hopefully we can be here for a while.”

    Zhou Tong, the sole Chinese player representing New Zealand’s semi-professional Auckland City, captured the spirit: “Football connects people, changes lives, opens eyes to the world. That’s magic-like universal language.”

    Unlike elite clubs, most Auckland City players hold full-time jobs and play part time. Zhou works as a community coach focused on grassroots development. Their participation powerfully embodied FIFA’s “Football Unites the World” campaign.

    CALENDAR AND COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES

    Criticism focused on increased player workload and injury risks. The CWC schedule fully overlapped with Europe’s summer league breaks. With next summer’s FIFA World Cup in North America, European players face back-to-back grueling seasons.

    UEFA and others have long criticized FIFA’s crowded calendar. Opponents argue players are overworked while domestic leagues face disruption. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reiterated: “Players are not machines.” The International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO) escalated the issue by filing a complaint with the European Commission.

    Another concern was the competitiveness gap. Heavy defeats, such as Auckland City’s 10-0 loss to Bayern Munich and Al Ain’s 6-0 defeat to Manchester City, highlighted the disparity. Teams from Asia, Africa and North America generally struggled, resulting in matches that lacked suspense and neutral appeal.

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino acknowledged criticism from European clubs and fans, as well as concerns about heat, noting future use of roofed stadiums and cooling breaks.

    Luka Modric (L) of Real Madrid vies with Senny Mayulu of Paris Saint-Germain during the semifinal match between Paris Saint-Germain (France) and Real Madrid (Spain) at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 at the MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, the United States, July 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

    “So maybe some criticize it a little bit, but it’s something new. It’s something special,” Infantino said. “It’s a real World Cup with the best teams and the best players.”

    He added: “The heat is an issue. Cooling breaks are very important, and we will see what we can do. But we have stadiums with roofs, and we will definitely use these during the day next year.”

    Infantino emphasized the tournament’s value for underrepresented regions like Oceania: “Auckland City, to some extent, represents 99.9% of football players and fans – those of us who dream of being on that stage but may never get the chance. Suddenly, one of us gets to play against the best. It must be a place for everyone.”

    REFEREEING REVOLUTION

    The tournament also served as a testing ground for technological innovation. A key rule change from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) debuted: goalkeepers holding the ball for more than eight seconds would concede a corner kick.

    FIFA Referees Committee Chairman Pierluigi Collina reported widespread approval. “It was very successful. The tempo of the match improved, and we saw no time wasting by goalkeepers, as happened quite often before.” Only two violations occurred, fulfilling the rule’s preventative goal.

    Referees wore head-mounted cameras to broadcast a first-person view, enhancing viewer engagement. Collina said the “ref cam” exceeded expectations and spurred interest in broader adoption.

    Referees also announced VAR decisions on-field via microphone, while fans in stadiums viewed the same replays as officials, increasing transparency. Coaches used tablets for substitutions and real-time player data (e.g., distance covered, heart rate), reducing errors and supporting tactical decisions. Collectively, the innovations improved fairness and flow.

    “The outcome of using the ref cam at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 went beyond our expectations,” Collina said. “We’ve received great feedback – people ask, ‘Why not in all matches?’ and even more: ‘Why not in all sports?’”

    BILLION-DOLLAR GAMBLE

    FIFA dramatically increased the prize pool from 16 million US dollars for seven teams in the previous edition to 1 billion dollars for 32 teams, surpassing the 440 million dollars awarded at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It became the richest prize pool in football.

    Clubs earned money based on performance and commercial impact. Even bottom-ranked Auckland City received 4.6 million dollars – about seven times their 2024 total revenue.

    Infantino dismissed skepticism over the tournament’s financial viability: “We heard it wouldn’t work financially, but we generated over 2 billion dollars in revenue from this competition. We earned an average of 33 million dollars per match. No other cup competition comes close.”

    “It is already the most successful club competition in the world by all different measurements,” he added.

    To maximize accessibility, FIFA struck a 1-billion-dollar global broadcast deal with streaming service DAZN, including free streams of all 63 matches in 32 languages.

    New presentation features such as individual player walkouts and a mid-final halftime show added spectacle-but sparked backlash. The 24-minute halftime performance violated FIFA’s 15-minute maximum break rule.

    Attendance figures varied widely: four matches drew fewer than 10,000 fans, with the lowest being 3,412 for a Group F match between Ulsan HD and Mamelodi Sundowns. Sixteen matches exceeded 60,000 fans, with the highest attendance at 81,118 for the Chelsea vs. PSG final.

    “We respect everyone’s opinion,” Infantino said. “But it has been successful. We had over 2.5 million spectators in the stadiums – around 40,000 per match. No league in the world reaches that number, except the Premier League.”

    MEDIA ZONE REFORMS

    The revamped CWC mixed zone abandoned the traditional TV-first format. Instead, four interview pods were set up – two per team.

    Clubs designated players to give interviews in their native language and in English. Written press were allowed to film and photograph, but videos could only be posted online one hour after the mixed zone closed and had to be removed within 48 hours.

    Many journalists welcomed the guaranteed access. Marcio Dolzan of Brazil’s Lance contrasted it with the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, where reporters waited two hours for Argentine players, who avoided interviews entirely.

    Others were critical. “Having covered nine World Cups, this format is unfamiliar,” said Antonio Carrasco of Venezuela’s Meridiano TV. “It feels like mini press conferences. All journalists hear the same thing. There’s no opportunity for exclusives or choice of whom to interview.”

    West Lamy of The Huffington Post pointed out logistical issues: At English-language pods, non-English-speaking journalists often interviewed players in their own language, undermining the pod’s purpose.

    FIFA provided translators, but they were often ineffective – journalists spoke over them or asked new questions before translations finished. Star players drew crowds, while others were overlooked. On-screen player data helped with question prep but didn’t solve access inequities.

    “But if this is a change FIFA has already decided on, we will adapt,” Carrasco said.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Olympians expected to make highlight as Universiade swimming kicks off

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Swimming at the Rhine-Ruhr World University Games will feature several student-athletes who competed at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

    High-profile coaches who have been behind some of biggest stars will also be part of the Games.

    Team USA will see Olympians Emma Lebron Weber and Jacob Ryan Mitchell as well as world junior mixed and women’s relay gold medalist Maxine Charlize Parker in the pool.

    Olympians Julie Brousseau, Patrick Hussey and Emma O’Croinin will be the shepherds for Canada.

    Canada’s Ashley McMillan will be on the chase for medals having made the final in the 200m individual medley at the 2024 world championships.

    Britain will have a strong presence in the 100m breaststroke with Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Archie Goodburn in the squad.

    Loughborough’s Fleur Lewis will be on the medal hunt in the 800m freestyle after breaking an 18-year-old British short-course record in the 1,500m freestyle at the BUCS Championships 2023.

    With the World Aquatics Championships beginning immediately after the opening of the FISU Games, many student-athletes will be heading straight from Berlin to Singapore.

    Among them is Paige Van Der Westhuizen from Zimbabwe, who studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

    “I’m feeling good,” she said. “Having the World University Games just before the World Aquatics Championships will be tough, but I’m excited.”

    Swimming Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor, who had coached Beijing 2008 Olympic champion Leisel Jones, said that the FISU Games will also help provide an incentive to keep student-athletes in their sport.

    “Athletes often face a crossroads that can end their careers,” Taylor said on Thursday. “They think they have to choose between university and a professional career of swimming.”

    “The World University Games provide an incentive for athletes to continue developing both paths by keeping them in the sport longer.”

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Universiade: First gold goes to Denmark as Sandersen triumphs in taekwondo

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    With a Danish flag wrapped around her shoulders, taekwondo athlete Eva Eun-Kyung Sandersen raced around the venue Thursday after claiming the first gold of the Rhine-Ruhr World University Games in the women’s individual poomsae with a score of 8.732.

    A nine-time World Poomsae medalist and 11-time European champion, Sandersen dominated the final with refined technique and precise coordination, finishing ahead of South Korea’s Jung Haeun. Kaitlyn Marie Reclusado of the United States and China’s Pan Meijing shared bronze.

    “I feel so relieved,” said Sandersen, pausing to catch her breath in a post-match interview. “I’m really happy and proud of my trainer and everything we’ve worked for. I can finally tell them that we did something great together.”

    Despite having stood on many podiums before, the gold at the University Games held special significance for the 24-year-old.

    “I’ve practiced taekwondo for about 15 years. The sport is my whole life – it’s everything I think about. This gold medal means so much to me.”

    This marked Sandersen’s first and last appearance at the Universiade. She had hoped to make her debut two years ago in China’s Chengdu, but a last-minute injury ended those plans.

    “I was supposed to go to Chengdu, but I injured my knee just one month before, due to intense training over a long period,” she said, becoming emotional. “It was a tough time, and it was hard to recover both physically and mentally.”

    Born to South Korean parents and raised in Denmark, Sandersen wasn’t introduced to taekwondo right away.

    “My sports journey actually started with ballet,” she said. “But my mom suggested I try taekwondo because of our Korean heritage.”

    After a decorated career that spans both continental and global success, Sandersen now hopes to combine her two passions: sport and science.

    “I’m a student majoring in pharmacy, and ideally I’d love to find a way to blend pharmacy with sports. I want to promote taekwondo around the world and show people how beautiful it is.”

    She also shared a personal dream: to one day see her discipline recognized at the Olympic level.

    “I know individual poomsae isn’t currently part of the Olympic program, so I may never get the chance to compete at the Olympics,” she said. “But I really hope it will be included one day, and if it is, I’ll definitely fight for that glory.”

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: CARAT Thailand 2025 Concludes, Strengthening U.S.-Thailand Maritime Partnership

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    SATTAHIP, Thailand — The 31st iteration of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand concluded June 16, 2025 in Sattahip, following a series of exercises and exchanges between the U.S. Navy (USN) and the Royal Thai Navy (RTN). The exercise, which began on July 7, 2025, was designed to enhance maritime interoperability, strengthen partnerships, and promote regional security cooperation.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Mann Calls for Increased Animal Health Research Investments in Comprehensive Farm Bill

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Tracey Mann (Kansas, 1)

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Tracey Mann (KS-01) spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of passing a five-year, comprehensive Farm Bill that makes adequate investments in animal health research and disease prevention. Following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which invests in the farm safety net and agricultural trade promotion programs, Rep. Mann continued to urge his colleagues to pass a fiscally conservative, five-year Farm Bill that provides much-needed certainty to the nation’s agricultural community. Rep. Mann represents the Big First District of Kansas, home to the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Kansas State’s School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Biosecurity Research Institute, crown jewels of the animal health corridor. These institutions conduct world-renowned research that strengthens the nation’s food security and, in turn, U.S. national security.

    Rep. Mann’s Remarks as Prepared:

    Mr. Speaker, in honor of the nation’s 249th birthday, House Republicans delivered the largest tax cut in our nation’s history for middle- and working-class families, strengthened the farm safety net, and voted to get our country back on track. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act gave a lifeline to the agricultural community by updating reference prices, expanding crop insurance, and saving millions of family farms from the death tax. The relief was long overdue and we’re grateful, but the work doesn’t stop there.

    It is past time for Congress to pass a fiscally conservative, five-year farm bill, including support for agricultural research and development. We’ve seen the devastating impact disease outbreaks can have with the HPAI virus and now we must continue to take steps to prevent the New World Screwworm from reaching our borders.

    The Big First District is home to crown jewels of the animal health corridor, where world-renowned research happens, positioning the United States to focus on disease prevention rather than on outbreak control after the fact. By investing in agricultural research, we strengthen our food supply chain and, in turn, our national security, all while providing the best and most effective return on taxpayer dollars. We cannot afford to put our food security at risk by not prioritizing adequate investments into animal health research when we pass the next iteration of our Farm Bill and I would urge this body to get this right.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Marshall: There Are Better Uses for $9 Billion Than Socialist Radio Stations

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall

    Senator Marshall Joins Fox Business to Talk About The Rescissions Package
    Washington – On Thursday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined David Webb and Dagen McDowell on Fox Business’ The Bottom Line to discuss the Senate passing the President’s rescissions package and the partisan bias of NPR and PBS.

    Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview.
    On why it was important to cut funding for NPR and PBS:
    “That’s just fine with me, David. The backdrop of this is $37 trillion of national debt. We’re spending $7 trillion here, only taking in $5 trillion. We’ve got a budget issue amongst us. And here we’re spending a billion dollars on public television. Look, I don’t wish them any ill will. They certainly are a left-leaning organization to be polite about it, but here you’re using taxpayer money to run an advertisement against a politician, right?
    “So anyway, we just thought… It’s not the best use of money, let’s put it that way. If I had the choice between spending a billion dollars on public radio, public television, versus rural hospitals, I’m going to pick rural hospitals.”
    On what America should do with the savings instead:
    “So I think the big picture, I would ask Americans is, if the President identifies waste, fraud, or abuse, what [do] you expect him to do with it? Well, I think we would expect him to be frugal and get rid of that. So, that’s exactly what we did here. We trimmed back. It’s only $9 billion, it’s only $9 billion, but again, that could help keep rural hospitals open. Maybe we could have more food. There’s lots of other things, better things to do with $9 billion, including paying off the national debt, which is the biggest long-term threat our grandchildren will ever face.”
    On the fake news narrative around severe weather and public broadcasting:
    “Yeah, once upon a time, there was probably a place for government funding. But when you’re in Kansas, we’re in Tornado Alley. And when there’s a tornado system coming towards you, heavy, severe thunderstorms, you’re going to tune to a local TV station with the local meteorologist with the radar. And then if you’re asleep, you have a special warning system. I don’t know anyone that turns to public broadcasting during these types of emergencies. That’s just a fallacy out there. I think there are plenty of other alternatives to your point. We would probably go to a radio station, but most likely, we want a local television with a locally trained meteorologist.”
    On how public broadcasting has been turned into an arm of the Democrat party:
    “So, they’re getting out a leftist message; these public broadcasts have been turned into another tool of the leftist socialists. That’s all they become significantly left. Yes, they’ve got some good programs, but we don’t want to use government funding for such a program as this; there are better things to do with the money.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gillibrand And Espaillat Reintroduce Resilient Transit Act

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand

    Legislation Would Authorize Additional Funding for Resilience Improvement Projects for Public Transportation Systems, Making Them More Reliable in the Event of Extreme Weather

    Today, United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, and Representative Adriano Espaillat announced the Resilient Transit Act of 2025. The legislation would provide a dedicated stream of federal funding to strengthen the resilience of the United States’ public transportation systems as extreme weather events become more common.

    This legislation would authorize an additional $300 million from the mass transit account of the Highway Trust Fund for Fiscal Year 2026 for resilience improvement grants and apportion those funds in accordance with the existing State of Good Repair Grants Program formula. Recipients of the grant would be able to use the funds to finance standalone resilience improvement projects or resilience improvement components of larger projects carried out under the State of Good Repair Grants Program. Resilience improvement projects include the use of structural and nonstructural techniques to better anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to extreme weather events precipitated by climate change, including earthquakes, sea level rise, heat waves, and floods.

    “Public transportation systems already lack sufficient resilience funding, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events precipitated by climate change will disrupt and damage future public transit function,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Public transit ridership continues to increase year over year, thereby increasing the necessity of functioning public transit systems. I am committed to improving the reliability of public transit for the millions of Americans who rely on it each and every year.”

    “The Resilient Transit Act of 2025 establishes the first-ever dedicated funding stream to proactively strengthen our transit systems, while working to make them more durable in the face of extreme weather and climate-driven threats,” said Representative Espaillat. “I’m proud to join Senator Gillibrand to introduce this critical piece of legislation once again, ensuring our infrastructure not only withstands storms today but continues to serve communities tomorrow. Together, we are committed to investing in public transit and safeguarding the lifeblood of cities around the nation.”

    Senator Gillibrand and Representative Espaillat first introduced the Resilient Transit Act in 2022 and reintroduced the bill in 2023. Additionally, Senator Gillibrand passed portions of her Resilient Highways Act as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, including provisions to relocate and raise roads out of zones at risk of floods or slides and construct protective infrastructure to mitigate flood risk.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: As DOGE Slashes Federal Agencies That Protect Seniors From Fraud, Gillibrand Calls For Action To Fight Scams

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand

    In 2024 Alone, Seniors Lost $4.8 Billion to Scammers

    Despite Uptick In Fraud, Trump Administration Is Firing The Federal Workers Who Go After Fraudsters 

    Gillibrand Asks For Watchdog Report On Ability of Agencies To Make Protecting Older Adults a Top Priority

    Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, held a virtual press conference to discuss the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies that protect seniors from frauds and scams. Last year, seniors lost almost $5 billion to scammers; these financial losses can be devastating for older adults with limited income.

    Federal agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau track and investigate fraud complaints. But the Trump administration’s attempts to cut critical staff is undermining their ability to go after fraudsters and protect seniors. 

    Gillibrand has called on the Government Accountability Office to examine how cuts affect federal efforts to protect seniors from scams. 

    “Every day, seniors fall victim to devastating scams that strip them of their life savings and steal their private information,” said Senator Gillibrand. “The federal government must do more to stop scammers and protect older adults. As the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, I am calling on the Trump administration to develop and implement a strategy to fight scams and to stop making cuts to federal agencies doing this critical work. I look forward to working across the aisle to fight for our seniors.” 

    The full text of Senator Gillibrand’s letter to head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office Gene Dodaro is available here. 

    The full text of Senator Gillibrand’s letter to Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Russell Vought is available here. 

    The Senate Aging Committee’s 2025 report on scams facing our nation’s seniors is available here. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gillibrand Statement On House Passage Of The Genius Act

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand

    Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand applauded House passage of the GENIUS Act, landmark legislation that will establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins. As the lead Democratic senator on the bill, Senator Gillibrand shepherded the legislation to passage in the Senate in June.

    “House passage of the GENIUS Act is a historic milestone in our bipartisan effort to regulate stablecoins. This bill will empower American businesses and consumers and enable them to take advantage of the next iteration of financial innovation,” said Senator Gillibrand. “A result of serious bipartisan negotiations, the GENIUS Act will protect consumers, enable responsible innovation, and safeguard the dominance of the U.S. dollar. This bill targets illicit finance, places limitations on Big Tech, puts in place ethical guardrails, and strengthens national security. The GENIUS Act is landmark legislation that will help maintain American global competitiveness, now and into the future.” 

    Senator Gillibrand, alongside Senators Hagerty (R-TN), Scott (R-SC), Lummis (R-WY), and Alsobrooks (D-MD), introduced the GENIUS Act earlier this year. The bill passed out of the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support in March 2025, and the Senate passed the full bill with strong bipartisan support in June 2025.

    Senator Gillibrand has been working on cryptocurrency legislation since 2022, when she and Senator Lummis introduced the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act, a comprehensive bipartisan framework for cryptocurrency regulation. The framework was re-introduced in 2023. In 2024, Gillibrand and Lummis also introduced a stablecoin bill that included many of the provisions that passed in the GENIUS Act.

    MIL OSI USA News –